


Death Of The Sun

by altrojunkie



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Other, Slice of Life, mostly about nuxable and slit/toast, nobody (except for joe /maybe/) at some point dies, rape/non-con is mentioned due to the nature of the mad max fury road movie, slow burn i guess, this is based on mad max fury road
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-03-21 05:53:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 48,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13734528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altrojunkie/pseuds/altrojunkie
Summary: Set in a wasteland that is not too different from our current world, the five wives and Furiosa escape from Joe and set up a new life for themselves as far away as possible from the Immortan Joe and his War Boys. But Citadel East is not a safe place and it is crawling with several gangs, such as the War Boys, the Gastown Boys, the Polecats, the Buzzards and the Mountain Riders. The girls try their hardest to escape their former life, but somehow it keeps catching up with them._________________I based East Citadel on big modern cities from today with a mix of Kowloon (aka the walled city). So while they live in a place that is not too different from our world, they're still surrounded by a lot of wasteland and the War Boys still go out on their cars with exploding lances, etc. I do realize that there are many similiarites to other fanfics, I hope nobody is offended by this as I have tried to make this story my own somehow.Enjoy!





	1. Fatal Impact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slit and Nux run into Capable at her new workplace. Capable realizes you cannot escape the War Boys inside East Citadel.

Heavy shoulders rolled back and forth as Slit made his way through the Pits. Around him was the usual busy chatter and banter of the many War Boys. The shaved heads, the white face paint with smeared grease around their foreheads or eyes gave them a skeletal look. Some of them even liked to pronounce this by painting their lips with grease to emulate the teeth of a skull. Not Slit though.  
No, Slit was better in that way. Like the Joker, he had scars running over his cheeks, giving him a distorted and crazy appearance. Slit didn’t mind. He had done it himself when he had just become a War Boy. He was proud to be the most extreme among them, to stand out with his ragged appearance amongst a mass of similar white and black faces. The best part, of course, were the staples in his left cheek. They were chrome and anything metal inside his body would make him a better War Boy. His partner, Nux, was currently leaning over into a car he was repairing by himself.  
A Chevrolet 5 Window Coupe, a real fucking shine car. Nux stood out from the rest of the War Boys like Slit did, because Nux had actually seared lines onto his lips with a hot iron so that no one could ever wipe off the skeletal look from his face. That also explained why Slit and Nux got along so well. Though naturally, Slit considered himself to be better by quite a lot, even if he only was a lancer.

“Yo, Nux, finish up. I wanna leave the Pits within the next ten years.”

Nux kicked at Slit’s leg without looking up. “Told you I’d need time. Good cars always take a while to get chrome.”

“You know I don’t have a lot of patience.” Nux didn’t say anything about that.

“Oh, come on…” Slit leaned over as well to get Nux to look up at least. The other War Box sighed.

“Guess I can finish up for today.”

With that Nux gave Slit a slight grin and a nudge with his foot. “What is so important to you that you can’t wait to leave the pits? Usually you’re in a better mood here, bossing people around and shit.”

“I only make people stay in line. Someone’s gotta do it.” Together they walked past the other War Boys. Some of them, like Gunner and Yurosh, looked up, but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t like they weren’t allowed to leave. Joe had always enforced strict rules upon the War Boys, for all the good reasons. They weren’t allowed to mingle with outsiders since they could start sniffing around in the darker parts of their business, they weren’t allowed to listen to anyone but Joe (or his imperators) and they were supposed to stay sharp, on top of their game. That meant physical exercise to keep fit, no drugs even though drinking beer was alright, and most importantly: no girls.  
The War Boys, as the name suggested, did not allow girls within their midst. The only exception to that rule had been Furiosa, but then again Furiosa had been the exception to anything. That meant, until she had left the War Boys, of course.  
Not only had she traitored the Immortan, she had stolen plenty of his stuff, too. Money, clothes, weapons. It had been enough for the Immortan to go after her and try to reclaim his stuff, rightfully so, but it had been too late. The Police Department of East Citadel may be made up of corrupt cops, but even they couldn’t ignore what was going on. So Furiosa had been allowed to leave like that.

Freakin’ traitor. Just thinking about her could get Slit all riled up.

After the Immortan had returned back to the Pits, rumors had started to fire up. That, according to Morsov and Yurosh at least, among the stuff Furiosa had taken from Joe, there had been some females as well. Joe’s girlfriends. Of course that man would have had lovers; he was the Immortan Joe after all. It was only right that the man would get some girlies for himself, though the girls were probably homeless right now.  
As far as Slit was concerned, being a War Boy, serving Joe and generally just being part of this community here was the chromest life anyone could ever live. He didn’t understand why Furiosa left, didn’t see any reason to try to understand either. She was a traitor now, so if Slit would run into her he’d let his fists speak. Maybe if he’d return with Furiosa’s blood on his hands, the Immortan would let him drive the Gigahorse someday. That’d be shine as fuck.  
As the two of them headed out, Nux pulled Slit out of his thoughts.

“So, why are you so hellbent on getting out of the Pits, Slit? Wanna go out for a race?” Nux poked Slit with his elbow. “Nah, just wanted to get out. If I have to listen to Morsov’s voice ever again it’ll be too soon.”

Slit made a distasteful grunt and Nux couldn’t help but grin. Morsov sort of really was a shithead, though he still was one of the better ones. Some of the War Boys even Nux did not trust.

“So what do you want to do then? Look, don’t just waste my time, I could have been working on my car…”

As Nux looked back with a longing expression on his face, Slit barked at him. “I just want some coffee. Haven’t had anything to eat since yesterday noon either and I’m starved.” Nux knew the feeling Slit was talking about, he was as skinny as a twig himself. One of the many reasons some of the other War Boys liked to look down on Nux. “So we go out and get some food. Good, sounds like a plan.” As they walked to their bikes, Nux continued. “There’s a café near the place I go to get parts for the cars if we don’t have them at the Pits.”

“Sounds good to me,” Slit answered. They put on the helmets and made their ways down the dusty streets of the Wastelands, as the War Boys called their territory.

====================================================================================

Capable was sitting behind the register in a small café called “The Red Hut”, and it certainly did live up to its name. The furniture, the walls, somehow even the light all appeared in some shade of red. It seemed only fitting for Capable to work there, with her fiery red hair and the freckles on her skin. Her boss was an older lady called ‘Ms. Jenkins’, who rarely ever found reason to criticize her and the costumers that came in didn’t bother her all too much, the vast majority of them being hipsters or older people. The business men that drove around during rush hour preferred a Starbucks. Most of the time, it was a quiet place where she could read a book when all the costumers were satisfied or where she could try to bake new pastries to lay out on the refrigerated counter.

She started her shifts on 7 am always, sometimes together with one of her sisters. Cheedo. She just turned 18 and immediately wanted to contribute to whatever little income they had. Capable liked that Cheedo was so eager to help, but wished she didn’t have to. Capable wished the five of them could just live without any hardship. They had endured Joe, had endured his endless groping and lustful eyes, had escaped that and now they were struggling to have enough money to pay their bills. Furiosa tried her hardest to set up a steady flow of income with the Vulvalini, the local all-female biker gang. Those ladies may be old, but they were badass and they knew the city better than any of those War Boys ever could.  
They weren’t an average gang like the Buzzards, not like the Gastown Boys because they didn’t deal with illegally obtained guzzolene or other substances, weren’t experts of human trafficking like the Polecats, didn’t organize illegal races like the Mountain Riders and they certainly weren’t as violent as the War Boys. At least most of the time, because Capable had heard the stories of Seeds and how she had shot several gang members in the head with a single shot. Not a single bullet missed. Even amongst peace loving women like the Vulvalini you had members capable of violence.

The Vulvalini had set Capable and her sisters up with jobs and chances for higher education after their escape from Joe’s lair. And Capable would try to repay them by being as little of a burden as possible, seeing as they lived together in a big house near the far west of the city. As Capable bent down behind the counter to rearrange her uniform, she heard the sound of the door being opened, signaled by the chiming of the bells that the door must have brushed against. She looked up, a professional smile on her face when she sees the new customer. Tall, skin a chalky white color, dark grease smeared around his eyes, the head shaven. He was wearing a black leather jacket and she couldn’t see the symbol on his back, but she knew, she just _knew_.

This was a War Boy.

Capable never had had any contact with them during the sisters’ time spent in captivity, but she had seen the imperators. And the only difference was the skin tone. War Boys almost looked sick, they spent too much time in their garages, sniffing guzzolene most likely. Or the Gods knew what else. The boy couldn’t know her. She knew he did not recognize her because there wasn’t any trace of recognition on his scarred features, but she was still terrified to the bone. Behind the counter her legs began to shake and sweat broke out across her back and the palms of her hands. She kept her eyes focused on him, just to be on the safe side. If he made any sudden movements, she’d bolt towards the door and call 911. As the boy strolled up to the counter she had lost her polite smile.

“Hi, I’d like two black coffees to go, both with milk, one with and the other without sugar. And two of those bagels with chicken on ‘em.”

“That’ll be $7,20, please.”

The boy placed money on the counter without speaking again and Capable hurried to get him his change. She made sure not to touch his skin as she dropped the coins into his hand. She wouldn’t give him any chance to grab her wrist or do other things. As she shuffled to get him the bagels he spoke up. “You scared of me, redhead?” She didn’t look up, but she heard the smug satisfaction in his voice as he drawled the words.

“Must be my pretty face.”

“No, I am not scared of you.”

“Then how come your hands are shaking so badly?” She just stared at him as she poured coffee into two cups, almost burned her fingers as she closed the lid with too much haste.

“Here you go, your order.” She pushed the cups over the counter and placed the bagels next to them. With his mouth pulled up in one corner of his face, he took the items and stuffed the bagels into the pockets of his jackets. As he stood there, still grinning, she could see the metal staples in his skin. They looked painful, grotesque even.

“My face so ugly you can’t help staring, can you?” Capable didn’t flinch, but her fingers moved closer to the panic button behind the counter. It was the last measure she could take besides bolting out of the room. It was a button that would notify Furiosa and Valkyrie so that they’d come and rescue her. The only problem was that if they would come, and Capable knew that Furiosa would drop whatever she’d be holding to come and save her, they would give themselves away to the War Boys.  
Then, without saying another word he turned around and stalked out of the café. Capable was unable to move or process anything for the following 15 minutes so the costumers who came up to her after this encounter did not leave an impression on her mind. Her hands continued shaking until the end of her shift, making her spill coffee here and there. Once she was out of her uniform, she went into the storage room and sorted coffee cans and milk cartons until her arms got tired. She took out her phone and texted Furiosa.

 

_War Boys came into the café today. Didn’t recognize me tho_

_Are you alright? Sure they didn’t recognize you?_

_Yeah, I’m sure_

_I’ll have Val come and pick u up_

 

Capable didn’t reply after this and instead just grabbed her things and left the café. On her way out she nodded at the old Ms. Jenkins in the corner and then the bells chimed as she stepped out into the cold winter air. East Citadel was in the midst of winter and so far snow wasn’t falling, but Capable was looking forward to the white flakes coming down from the sky. It had been almost two years since she had seen any snow. Another bitter memory left inside of her by Joe.  
With a frown she turned around on her heels to wait near the bus station for Valkyrie, and stopped dead in her tracks. The War Boy that had paid her a visit earlier and another one, lankier than the one with the evil grin, came walking down the street directly to where she stood. The two hadn’t noticed her yet and so she hurried to sit down at the bus stop.

That way she could at least pretend to be doing something other than being scared for her life.

====================================================================================

“Man, we really got some good parts there! Most of these are almost unused. So new they still shine.” Nux held up what he bought against the dim light of the street lantern they were walking beneath. On top of everything, the parts had been cheap. So with a filled stomach and some shiny new parts for his car (and in extension it would be Slit’s car as well since they were partners), they made their way down the street until Slit nudged him at his arm.

“That’s the girl I saw in the café.” Nux’s head snapped around and he took a good look at the redhead. Yeah, that had to be the girl Slit had joked about. Apparently Slit’s face had scared her so badly, she’d barely been able to speak. Looking at the girl like this, Nux could understand. Her fiery hair was a stark contrast to the grey of the sidewalk and the light of the street lantern only enhanced the glow, like a halo.  
To someone as chrome as her, Slit had to appear utterly horrifying. Maybe even revolting. Before neither Slit nor Nux could do anything else, she glanced at them from the corner of her eyes and Nux could get a better look at her face. It was oval with a fine nose and high cheekbones. She was devastatingly pretty, not that Nux would know much about any other beauty than that of engines.

When she saw them stare back at her, she turned away from them, her hands grasping the bag that she had put into her lap. Nux wondered what she was doing outside so late alone, until he remembered that she must have been working until now. It didn’t seem very safe for her to be by herself in a neighborhood like this. This was an unclaimed area of East Citadel and that meant potential trouble. Mountain Riders or Buzzards could arrive any moment and try to claim this place for them.  
Then she’d be trapped here between the gangs.  
With a nudge at Slit, the two of them walked over to her, Slit less willing than Nux apparently since the older War Boy only followed Nux after a few steps and a string of juicy curse words. But Nux had to talk to her, if only to make sure she’d get onto the bus she was waiting for without getting stalked by some low-life. As he walked up to her, she grabbed her bag harder until her knuckles turned white. But Nux didn’t notice and Slit didn’t bother to point this out. This would only make it worse.

“Hey there, my friend said you work at this café here?” Nux showed her his usual smile, his scarred lips still looking friendly even in their rugged state. Maybe it was his eyes as well. They were big and bright blue, almost taking up a third of his face when he was talking like this. The girl just stared back at him without saying anything at first. Nux didn’t turn away from her and she seemed to pull herself together after a while.

“Yeah, I work there.”

“The coffee you made was great, the bagels too.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t seem overly happy even as she thanked them. Nux tried his hardest to be friendly and wondered if he should sit down next to her to appear less intimidating. But Slit was standing behind him and nothing could make Slit appear less scary. “So, you’re here more often, right? Maybe we’ll see you around.”

As the girl bit her lip and prepared to answer him, a car came around the corner. When it came to a stop at the bus stop, the girl got onto her feet, almost knocking into Nux. She wasn’t exactly small, but Nux still had a good few inches on her. “I have to go. Good night.” She didn’t look at them as she slid into the car. As the car sped off into the distance, Slit shoved Nux. “What?”, the younger one asked.

Nux _really_ was a hard nut to crack and sometimes he seemed to have the brain of a nut as well. Maybe it was just that, or maybe it was the fact that Slit was used to scaring everyone around him, but he had learned to read the signs of fear within people as he grew up. Slit had seen her white knuckles, the way she had swallowed too often and her eyes, darting between them and the other side of the street.

“You’re really dumb sometimes, you know that?” Slit taunted him.

“Oh, as if you’re any better, asshole!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only the first chapter and I am so sorry about any grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes. Neither do I have a beta reader, nor am I an English speaking native. Therefore I hope y'all ain't going to go too hard on me.
> 
> Also, does anyone know what the official spelling is for gasoline in the Mad Max universe? I have read both guzzolene and guzzoline.


	2. The Eternal Rains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nux and Slit discuss what happened at the café, same goes for Capable and her sisters. Nux plans to return to the café to see that fiery girl once more.

Furiosa was waiting for her as Capable entered the kitchen. The former Imperator didn’t say  a word while Capable poured herself a cup of tea and then flung her bag into the corner of the room.

“Did they really not recognize you?” Capable stared at the tea in her cup and remembered the boys that had talked to her, especially the one with the scarred face. With his face looking like that it had been hard to read any emotion at all, but she was sure he hadn’t recognized her. And how should he have done that in the first place? The War Boys had never seen the ‘wives’ as Joe had called them.   
“I don’t think they did. The one that came into the café only ordered two coffees and two bagels, didn’t really do much else. He noticed I was scared though and he taunted me for it. Said it must be his face.” Capable took another sip of her tea as Valkyrie came into the kitchen. “The two War Boys talked to her while she was sitting at the bus stop. They made no move to attack her or take her away. Don’t think they knew who she was.” Furiosa first turned to Val, then back to Capable.

“They followed you outside?”

“No, I just sat down at the bus stop to wait for Val, then they came down the street from the other end of the block. Maybe there is another shop nearby that they went to, I don’t know.”

“What did they talk about with you?”

“Nothing much at all. The boy who talked to me wasn’t the one who bought the coffee. He just complimented the coffee and the bagels, that was it.” The three women grew quiet. After a while, Furiosa spoke up again.

“I agree with you. Don’t think they recognized you there. It’s a good thing the War Boys never saw any of you. I still want you to be careful though. Take a can of pepper spray with you at least. And from now on, you’ll wait in the café until your bus comes. Or one of us will pick you up.”   
Capable only nodded in response, because what else was left to do? A can of pepper spray was probably still better than taking a gun or a knife and if Capable wouldn’t do this, Furiosa would only worry. So would all the others. Even if you stayed away from dark alleys in East Citadel, you could still turn up as a gutted corpse in the newspaper the next day. It just wasn’t safe here.   
In any other city perhaps, you would call the cops if you encountered gangs, but the ECPD was absolutely useless. Most of the time those cops had business going on with the gangs, drugs being the most common. The cops in this town couldn’t help you, except for one and that one was currently roaming around the outer skirts of East Citadel like a stray dog. Capable couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Max up close. He only came by every other month or so since he preferred a life lived in solitude.

Soon, the other girls started to stroll into the kitchen. The Dag, Cheedo and Toast were all studying full time and working part time jobs as underpaid waitresses or staff members of supermarkets. Out of all of them, Toast probably had the best job. She was working in a local book shop, big enough to fill out two stories and her job came with a decent hourly wage at least. Toast loved books and she sometimes spent her entire day reading and reading. Capable admired her for her constant drive for knowledge. The Dag had a part time job as a waitress and Cheedo worked in the same café as Capable. Their income wasn’t gigantic, but it was manageable. They paid their bills and they had food. Angharad wasn’t working as she was pregnant and it’d only be about another month before she’d give birth.

Another remain from Joe, another mark they couldn’t just wipe off themselves. Another thing they had received from him. But most importantly though, they also had freedom. And freedom was worth any other hardship.

The girls were followed by some of the Vulvalini. Seeds placed three bags with groceries next to the fridge as two others started cooking for tonight. While they were talking, the mood changed from gloomy to lighthearted. In this house, far away from the War Boys, it all seemed like a bad dream. But one glance at her sisters, and she knew they had heard what happened at the café earlier. After dinner, a glorious combo of baked sweetpotatoes and chili, the five girls went upstairs to Capable’s and Angharad’s room to talk about this evening.

It was Toast who first raised her voice. “So, War Boys now coming all the way to unclaimed territory in the west of East Citadel?”

“I don’t think they came to claim the place. They didn’t seem to carry spray cans with them. There were no tags to be seen either”, Capable said as she pulled her knees up to her chin on the bed. The Dag was sitting next to her, leaning onto her shoulder. Toast had sat down on Angharad’s bed, together with Cheedo and Angharad herself. Her belly poked out from beneath her sleeping shirt, that’s how round she’d gotten these past weeks. “Besides, there isn’t much there. A few small shops, a few bars and empty houses.”

“Maybe they had some business there?”, Angharad suggested. “Even War Boys have to leave their territory to buy other things when they need them.”

“Maybe they weren’t doing anything bad?”, Cheedo asked. Still the youngest and still the most naïve one. “Capable said one of them came in to buy coffee and two bagels.”

“Yeah”, the Dag chimed in. “You don’t really buy coffee and food if you’re out to start a street fight.” They all fell silent at that.

“Anyway, I think we need to be careful.” Toast rubbed her head, ruffling her short hair. “Joe doesn’t ever really leave the Pits or his house, but his imperators do. If they catch us, we’re done for.” No one said anything to contradict Toast because it was the truth. “But those War Boys didn’t recognize you, right?”   
As Capable nodded, Toast continued. “Then you just keep working there. If you’d stop now, they could get suspicious and start blabbering about it to Joe. And Joe would just know that it was one of us they ran into.” Freakin’ Joe. Toast wished he’d just drop dead - he’d be old enough at least. But no, that sick bastard continued to breathe air. Continued to pollute the streets with his garbage. Sometimes Toast wished they would have been able to kill him, but Angharad had been against that. That meant that Cheedo and Capable followed along. Furiosa respected Angharad enough as well.

“What will we do if they come back to the café?”, Cheedo asked. Her fear was obvious.

“We pretend everything is normal,” Capable decided. “We’ll pretend we’re not scared of them. They don’t know who we are and if they come for the sole purpose of getting some caffeine, we should treat them like any other customer.” Angharad gave Capable a small smile, her hand rubbing over her swollen belly. “If it becomes too dangerous, I’ll try to help you find new jobs”, she promised. “We can’t let them rule our lives anymore. We are free, let’s live our lives like that, too.”

When the five of them were together like this, they found the most courage. The most strength. Together they felt the safest. None of them voiced the truth though, and that was that when they went out, even if they were together, they were targets. It wasn’t just War Boys out there; Buzzards and Mountain Riders could be equally as aggressive as War Boys and the Polecats liked to snatch people for human trafficking. The girls knew that if they’d end up in the hands of Polecats, it’d be their end. The Polecats wouldn’t return them to Joe, but they’d sell them to equally disgusting men or women. The entire town was dangerous, like cancer. Capable didn’t even know why they stayed.

Toast had once said that running from home would only be a sign of cowardice, but Capable wasn’t so sure of that. Maybe being a coward was a sign of being smart as well.

===================================================================

As Slit and Nux went to their car, Nux had a shit-eating grin on his face. “She was pretty, don’t you think? Real shiny.” Her red hair had been so chrome, Nux still thought about it. Of course it’d be Slit who’d meet her first. “Yeah, she was terrified of us though.”

“Was she? I didn’t notice.”

“Of course not, you’re not used to scaring anybody.” Slit sneered at him. “Didn’t you see her knuckles? I sure did.”

“I didn’t see that, no…” Nux made a surprised look, which made his eyes become even bigger if that was even humanely possible. “She was probably just scared of you, Slit. With your face and all that.” Nux wanted to clap Slit onto his shoulder, but the look Slit sent towards Nux made him stop. “Something wrong?”, Nux questioned.

“Nah, I’m good.” They stared at each other for another second, then got into the Chevrolet.

“I think tomorrow I’ll come back here to buy some coffee myself.” Nux was confident to meet the redhead again.

“We’re supposed to stay away from girls. Stay sharp, no distractions”, Slit said.

“I know.”

“Then don’t go and meet her. You’re a War Boy. You owe the Immortan.”  _Don’t forget that_ , Slit thought, but it went unsaid. As they turned into 25th street, Nux broke the silence again. “You ever think about getting a girl?”, Nux asked without turning to him. “You know, go on a date?”

Slit stared at him and then pointed at his face. Nux chuckled. “You did these scars yourself, you remember that, true?” Slit barked a laugh. “’Course I remember. Just means I don’t think about girls. And  _you_ ”, he added in a serious voice, “shouldn’t either.”

“But why not? The Immortan had girls.”

“He’s also the Immortan. He has freedoms most of us don’t. For all the right reasons. A girl would only distract you, Nux. Keep her out of your head. Besides, you don’t even know her.”

“That could change if I’d go on a date with her.” Nux grinned the same way he did when talking about a chrome car. “Think she’ll do that? She probably knows you’re a War Boy by your appearance. You think she’d be the kinda girl to go on a date with a gang member?”

“Maybe. I’ll know tomorrow once I ask her out.”

“Nux, don’t. You’ve sworn your loyalty to the Immortan, not to some girl.” When Nux didn’t reply, Slit looked ahead again. “You’ve been thinking about getting a girl for a while, haven’t you?”

“Possibly. I just… I feel like there could be more to life than this. And I don’t see how being a War Boy means that I shouldn’t get to experience life at all. Most of us are dead by the time we’re 30, I want to experience at least something before I die on the Fury Road.” Slit looked at Nux like he was fucked in the head.

“So you’re telling me that if a girl wanted you, you’d say no?”

Slit shifted in the seat and grunted a really unconvincing ‘yeah’ and Nux just raised his eyebrows. “Won’t happen though. The scars,” Slit murmured.

“Ah, yes, those scars  _you did to yourself_. And you do realize that some girls may be into that, right?” Slit snorted and flicked Nux’s ear. As they grew silent, Nux said: “You never talk about your scars. I know it makes you uncomfortable.”

“I did it so people would know to stay away from me. So that the Immortan would see me and know that I’d go to great lengths to prove my loyalty to him. That I’d sacrifice my face to be a War Boy if necessary. So that I’d never be as stupid as you and think about getting a girl even when it goes against the Immortan’s rules. Because all the girls would be too scared to approach me in the first place.” The words came out in a rush, like he haid prepared to tell Nux about this for a long time. Slit leaned back in his seat, satisfied with himself, but Nux only thought that this was sad. Nux couldn’t remember the Immortan ever noticing any of the War Boys - though getting noticed by him like that must be what it’d feel like to get into Valhalla.

“Do they still bother you sometimes?” As Slit looked at him in confusion, Nux added: “The scars?”

Slit mulled over his answer while they sped further into the wasteland. “Nah, but sometimes when I’m stressed I chew on them on the insides of my mouth. The pain keeps me grounded.” Slit still didn’t let anyone touch his face. Even though it didn’t hurt, somehow having someone touch the scars was too much. He remembered how Barrow had clawed at his scars during a brawl and how it had taken Slit’s days to recover from that, both mentally and physically.   
The first time Slit had scarred his own face, he’d felt a rush. A wonderful, glorious rush. The pain had been a relief and his inner stress had bled out of him together with his blood. That the other War Boys looked at him like he was a bit more feral the next time they saw him had only added to his ego. So he decided to do it again, only to realize that the anticipated rush hadn’t occurred again. He’d gotten so frustrated that the cutting hadn’t gotten him the emotional relief he had needed so badly, he did it more and more until he ended up looking like the Joker. The other War Boys had declared him mentally instable by that point, harder than any of them, and Slit hadn’t met anybody who wasn’t scared of him some way ever since. The exception to that were Nux, Ace - but only because that one had known him since his days as a War Pup -, the other imperators and the Immortan Joe. Though Slit had never spent any time alone with that man.

Nux knew why Slit had started to cut up his face with a razor, he knew why Slit kept biting on the insides of his mouth to make himself bleed every other day, but he didn’t remind Slit of that too often. He liked to let Slit believe that Nux was too oblivious to know or understand.

“You know”, Nux began, “getting yourself a girlfriend or anyone at all may help with what’s going on.” As Slit turned his head to Nux, the younger War Boy tapped his head. “Maybe it’d help you see yourself clearly - “ “I know who I am, Nux. No one’s gotta tell me that.”

Nux didn’t say anything for the rest of the ride and neither did Slit. Nux had known what had been going on with Slit the first time he’d seen him with his cut up face. He knew that the other War Boys wouldn’t have done such a thing. They would beat each other, taunt each other, but never ever cut each other up. It was something you just didn’t do to your crew. Slit had never talked about the problems in his head, but Nux could guess what this was about. Slit had grown up with parents, unlike Nux, and they had given him up for adoption when he’d been about 10. Slit had talked about it one time and Nux had never dared to breech this topic again with him. It’d been the only time Nux had seen Slit cry. So naturally, when Slit had become a War Pup, he’d wanted to prove himself. Just that he didn’t have an outstanding talent like Nux had with repairing engines. Nux was a born blackthumb. Slit was alright, but not the best. Slit was good at barking orders at people, but he was no imperator. He was good in hand-to-hand combat, but they weren't required to do that often enough either.  
Slit was outstanding in lancing, no fear inside of him whatsoever. He became euphoric during battle, could throw his lances further than any other War Boy. But being a lancer didn’t bring you glory, at least not by War Boy standard because there were many lancers; being a lancer didn’t make you anything special. So feeling like he wasn’t living up to his new family, the stress had started to eat at him until one day he had had the splendid idea of cutting himself open.

Not that Nux could say anything against his scars since he had a couple of those adorning his face, too. And Nux, too, had done them himself in a way. Though they had been more of an accident.   
He wondered if the redhead had been scared of him because of that perhaps. Maybe, if he’d meet her in a different light she’d be able to see past the scars. He imagined the next day, how he’d turn up at the café and how he could impress her or at least make her think of him as something chrome. As War Boys neither he nor Slit had any nice or fancy clothes, just their motorcycle boots, their old cargo pants, some bland shirts and their leather jackets.

He’d wash his jeans and shirt at least. If he didn’t have any nice clothes, at least they wouldn’t be dirty or smelly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some dialogue about self-harm, I hope I wrote about it in a way that doesn't make it seem like I am totally stupid because I have never self-harmed and I don't know what it's like to have that wish either.
> 
> That being said, I apologize for any spelling mistakes.
> 
> Also, if you can see the little bits of speaking habits that I got from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, aye, I feel sorry you read the same weird novels that I did. Welcome to the club of fans of trash literature.


	3. The Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nux visists Capable, then our two favorite War Boys meet Toast (though that is unknown to them) and they hang out with other War Boys. Nux realizes that his thinking is like a sore thumb among the War Boys.

The start of her shift the next day came with a heavy case of nervous sweats and shaking fingers. Her stomach churned and she kept glancing outside to check if any War Boys would come in, though it was unlikely. War Boys weren’t known to be early birds. Ms. Jenkins wasn’t in the café so early in the morning so Capable and Cheedo were the only ones managing everything. The first wave of costumers came in during the early hours and Cheedo served coffee and tea with a sweet smile for each of them. Capable cleared tables, cleaned used mugs and plates and made inventory of the storage room. When rush hour was over and everything slowed down, she decided she could try to bake a cake. They still had leftover cake from the day before, but she should make some just in case. Besides, there wasn’t anything else to do.   
It didn’t take her long before she found herself to be at peace again, content to just stir the ingredients together. When she put the form with the dough into the oven, she thought that maybe she could take a few slices of the lemon cake with her for the others. Angharad always had had a sweet tooth and Furiosa deserved an entire cake for the rest of her life anyway. A slice would suffice though. She peeked out to Cheedo, just to check if she was doing alright and she knew something was wrong. Cheedo looked frozen, had stopped breathing and instead stared ahead.

Capable knew who had come back. Of course they would, her sisters and her just couldn’t escape them, could they?

===================================================================================

Nux stared at the pretty dark-haired girl in front of him. He had hoped to see the redhead again today after only being able to exchange a few words the night prior. He had shaved again, put on his washed cargo pants and a clean shirt. Had been months since he had worn anything clean. He thought he smelled like flowers, an odd scent compared to the usual motor oil he smelled like. He cleared his throat and spoke with the girl, trying to be as friendly as possible.

“Hey there, I saw your friend yesterday, the girl with fiery red hair? And I was wondering if she’s here today, too.” He grinned at her, the scars on his lips growing wider as he did so. The girl didn’t answer him, but she did glance at a door to her right. It was open, but it was angled in a way that made it impossible for anyone standing at the counter from his position to take a look inside. The way the girl looked, he bet that the redhead was somewhere there.

“I’d also like a coffee, black with some sugar.”

“Would you like that to go?”, a familiar voice came from behind the door and the girl from last night stepped out. Nux grinned even wider now and nodded. He didn’t have much time to stay chatting in the café, no matter how much he would have liked that. She didn’t look much different from last night, biggest difference was that she was wearing a uniform of sorts, and her hair was braided in two braids that fell down her shoulders. He thought about what Slit had said about her being afraid of them and he took notice of her lips, pressed together into a tight line and her hands grabbed the paper cup a bit too hard to be casual.

“Go to the back, I need someone to keep an eye on the cake”, the redhead whispered to her dark-haired friend and the other girl disappeared without looking back. Nux knew War Boys had a fearsome reputation here in East Citadel, but he’d never thought it was that bad. He hoped he could make the redhead look past his reputation.

“Hey, I thought I’d come back today after we met last night. Your coffee’s great.” It had been a poor attempt at conversation but he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Ah, did you, now?”, she asked with her eyebrows drawn up. “Don’t you have cafés where you come from?” Nux shook his head. “None where you’re working.” Okay, maybe _that_ had been too much to say and judging by the way her eyes widened and her skin flushed, he had probably crossed a line. She didn’t say anything else as she closed the lid of his cup of coffee and when he wanted to give her the money she didn’t make any movements to reach out to him. He ended up dropping the coins onto the counter instead.

“Here’s your coffee.” She slid the paper cup over, Nux takes it and takes a sip. Just as good as the day before. “You been working here for a long time?”

“No, I just started recently.”

“Your coffee is chrome, here let me see if-“, he said as he went through the pockets of his jacket and he manages to get a few coins out. Together he let them fall into a tin can that said ‘tips’. “A tip for you.” Nux felt like he’d already pushed his luck with the girl, but he still added. “Since you’re so shiny and chrome, too.” He smiled one more time before leaving the café, satisfied with himself and the world at the moment and way too busy to have noticed Capable’s frown as he had let the coins fall into the tin can.

Capable couldn’t believe it. The War Boy had actually dropped some money as a tip for them, but she felt like it was dirty money. Made from theft, made by kidnapping or drug trafficking, made by illegal car races. She didn’t want to have the money but she also reminded herself that money was money and they did need it. Besides, better the money ends up here than in a brothel. The encounter with the boy had been enough to rattle both Capable and Cheedo, but at least they had been somewhat prepared for this to happen. Cheedo peeked around the corner, only to see that the café was empty besides two elderly men reading some newspaper. As if those would bring any good news around here.

Cheedo came around to the register as Capable cleaned the counter once more and the younger girl took the money out of the tin can that the War Boy had left there. “Oh look, he dropped a small piece of paper with it.” She folded it open and read it before her eyes widened. “Capable, he gave you his number! It’s his number on here!” Capable looked at Cheedo as if she were a bit crazy and then she took a look at the paper too. Indeed, there it was. A phone number written in messy handwriting. “What are you going to do with this,” Cheedo whispered.

“We should throw it away. We don’t need it and he is a _War Boy_. Let’s not forget that.”

“He said you were shiny and chrome. Maybe…”

“Maybe he was just interested in me, who knows. Doesn’t change what he is.”

“He smiled at you. A lot.”

“Cheedo, don’t be stupid. We don’t want to get involved with War Boys ever again, remember that,” Capable whispered back while grabbing Cheedo by her shoulders. The younger girl seemed to consider this topic closed after Cape’s reaction. The two of them went back to work and Capable managed to throw the piece of paper into the trash without looking at the digits again. This chapter was closed, she was done with it. Her sisters were done with it. She didn’t believe that the War Boy had been out to harm her or Cheedo, but once he’d know who she was he’d go to Joe. She’d have to protect her sisters at all costs.

The rest of their shift went by without any other gang members showing up and Capable was proud to tell Furiosa in a text message how she had handled the situation when the War Boy had walked in. Furiosa said she still had to remain careful, even if the War Boy had been alone. War Boys always came in packs like dogs. Ms. Jenkins came in the late afternoon and Capable told her there had been no trouble whatsoever. Cheedo left the café a bit before Capable did that night, mostly because it was her turn to cook and she still had to do the groceries. “I’ll cook pumpkin soup, maybe with some savory onion bread; I think it’ll be a good combo. Dag is going to help me with the bread since she said she just harvested another round of herbs from one of her gardens.” Capable grinned at her and put Cheedo’s uniform into the wardrobe in the hallway next to the storage room. The bell in the front of the café chimed as Cheedo left the room with a spring in her step after bidding a quick goodbye to Ms. Jenkins who was in her little office in the back and going over the numbers. When Capable closed the café, she knocked and then went inside once she was called in. “Ms. Jenkins? I am going to go home now, I’ve already closed the café and I put today’s earnings into the safe. Is there anything else for me to do before I go?”

“No, darling, you’ve been doing great. We’ve had a small surplus these past weeks and I can give you a bit more money I think. Not regularly, but this one time. Here.” Ms. Jenkins pushed 50$ over with her withered old hand and smiled. “You’ve earned it, been working so hard and never complaining. You’re a good girl.” Capable smiled and took the money, carefully storing it inside her wallet. Fifty dollars, just for her. She could buy something for Angharad’s baby possibly, or maybe a nice book for Toast. Maybe she’d find something nice that everyone could use.

“Be careful on your way home, will ya?” Ms. Jenkins called after her on her way out. “Always”, came Capable’s answer.

===============================================================================

Nux kept riding around the city in hopes of finding something to do, anything, to make him stop daydreaming about the redhead. Her hair was like a blazing flame inside his head. Most of his thoughts revolved around engines. There was a reason he had a V8 engine seared onto his chest. His thoughts revolved around guns and the dust of streets as he chased after those who had traitored them, as he chased down Buzzards and Mountain Riders. He’d always thought that had been the most chrome thing to dream of, of course that was until he had met that girl. Her hair was a fiery splash of color inside his world gunmetal grey. He’d never known he needed that kind of color until he had seen it. Now his thoughts wouldn’t revolve around anything but that color.

He was still daydreaming as Slit jumped onto the lancer’s backseat and startled him. “A little warning next time, you fucker.” As Nux opened the window on top of the car for his partner, he added. “Almost made me shoot you.” Slit just grinned at that. “Don’t tell me you were still thinking about that girl from the coffee shop.” Nux just shrugged. “So what if I was. Didn’t you see her?”

“I did and you know what Joe and all the others would say if they could hear you right now. You’re getting soft.” And in their world getting soft meant getting eaten by Buzzards. Being soft was something you wanted to avoid at all costs, especially as a War Boy.

“But they aren’t here.” Nux turned his head to look Slit in the eyes. “Didn’t the Immortan have some girls of his own?”

“Yeah, so what,” Slit just gave as a reply. “He’s the Immortan, he stands above us all.”

“Yeah, but if girls make us soft, then they would make him soft as well, wouldn’t they?” As Slit’s fist came down onto the hood of the car, Nux eyes didn’t widen, but he did start the engine of the car again. “The Immortan Joe isn’t soft and you know it. He’s the toughest of us all. The reason that we have what we have and that we have a purpose driven life is all him. He’s the reason Citadel East belongs to us and not the Buzzards or Mountain Riders. He made us great and taught us everything important when we were nothing, don’t forget that Nux,” Slit barked at him. With a roaring sounds Nux turned left and lined up into the lane that was forming on the street. Late afternoon rush because people were heading home.

“I know that the Immortan is the reason we are who we are. I know that everything we have, we have because of him. I know that without him, you and I probably would have ended as street trash junkies. We’re lucky that he decided to take us in and so are all the other War Boys. Hell, Coma probably would have gotten murdered at some point and now he’s our guitar warrior that leads us into battle with thrashing guitar riffs and flames. I’m not dumb, Slit.” Slit grunted as if he wanted to fight Nux on the last thing he had said.   
Clearly, Slit did think that Nux was dumb. It wasn’t like Nux didn’t know that he didn’t have the sharp mind that Slit did. Nux never knew when to stop and he never knew when people didn’t want him around anymore because he annoyed them. In that regard, Slit was simply better. Sharper. Nux drove right onto 7th street and parked in front of a small grocery shop on the corner. Neon signs proclaimed the store to be open and Nux could see a few customers inside. They weren’t in War Boy territory anymore, but nobody in East Citadel would start a fight with War Boys if they knew what was good for them.

Nux grinned as he got up from the car and Slit jumped down onto the pavement. “I gave her my number, you know,” Nux continued because he felt the need to explain everything to Slit. It had always been like that between them. No secrets. “You did?” Slit looked back at him in surprise. “Did she take your number? She already called you back?”

“Nah, I just wrote it on a piece of paper and dropped it into the tip can in the café. Hasn’t called me yet or anything.”

“Honestly, I don’t think she will,” Nux said. _And it’d be better if she wouldn’t_ , Slit thought. No War Boy ever had gotten himself involved with a girl, the gods only knew what would happen if Nux would be the first of many. They’d all go soft. Slit made a disgusted expression. It wasn’t that he had anything against the redhead.   
As a matter of fact, he found it quite brave of her to face Nux the day after she had encountered him. Figured his scars should have scared her enough to the point of quitting her job, but then again, Nux wasn’t very scary. His eyes were too big and he smiled all the time like he’d heard some joke. But as a War Boy Nux wasn’t allowed to become soft. That meant dying soft and that meant no Valhalla.

“What would you do if she called you back?” Slit asked, suddenly curious. “I mean, you don’t know her. Don’t even know her name.”

“Well…,” Nux began and Slit could see him entering his dreamland again. “I guess I’d ask her for her name first.” Nux flicked Slit’s ear. “Then I’d ask her out on a date. I could take her for a quick race on my bike, I finished the repairs. We could drive over to the hills behind the Bullet Farm, hang out.” Slit grinned and then poked Nux in the shoulder. “You think she’ll sit on your bike? She didn’t even want to talk to you from what you told.” He leaned back, clearly satisfied with his remark and Nux lowered his head.

“I guess you’re right. But I can hope, can’t I?”

Slit scoffed. “ _Hope_. That means you goin’ soft now?” With a grin Nux boxed Slit in the ribs and they entered the shop. Roughing each other up was the War Boy way of being friendly with each other, the closest thing to comforting each other as they got and were allowed to. He wondered how he could show the redhead that he was no threat, that he meant no harm. Boxing her in the ribs seemed hardly appropriate for that.   
He thought about regular citizens and what they did. He knew normal couples went out on dates and ate together in restaurants or bars, but he had no money for that. Joe gave the War Boys everything they needed so there never had been a need for money for them in the first place. The only money they ever had they used for buying new parts to repair cars or build new ones. So Nux didn’t have enough capital to take the fiery girl out for a date and he wondered if she’d look down on him for it. That meant of course, if she’d look at him at all.

She still hadn’t called back and here he was, imagining himself on a date with her like an idiot. Slit and Nux roamed through the aisles and got cigarettes, some beer and a package of sandwiches. Slit didn’t talk and so Nux was alone with his thoughts. He checked his phone every other minute and each time he looked at the screen without any new messages he got more impatient. An apple hit him in the head and Nux caught it before it could fall to the ground. “Oi!” Nux shouted back at Slit who just kept grinning till the staples in his face gleamed in the cool light of the refrigerated counters. “Had to do something to get you out of your dreamland. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

The two of them made their way over to the register as another figure came into the shop. A girl, black and small with a pixie haircut. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the two War Boys. As her eyes went to the emergency exit in the back, Slit felt the hilarious wish to whisper ‘ _Boo!_ ’ at her.   
She was afraid of them. Nux didn’t notice her. She kept on eyeing them as she made her way down the aisles and she picked vegetables, fruits and some shampoo or some other shit that made you smell like laundry detergent. Slit leaned against the counter and eyed her, up and down; he often played that game with people. Just to see how long it’d take them to take off and run away in fear and most people only lasted a few dozen seconds, if at all. Nux paid for their stuff and then tugged at his elbow to get Slit’s attention. The girl kept her eyes on them as they made their way to the exit and Slit had to acknowledge her bravery. Not many people could stand to look Slit in the eyes for long.

Once they were outside, Nux ripped the package of one sandwich open and began to devour it with big bites. War Boys always ran on empty and heavy meals came far and in between. Slit took a sip of his beer and then turned his head once more when the girl from before came out of the shop. Her eyes narrowed at him and he had to grin until the scars on his cheeks began hurting. He knew his face looked distorted when he did it and to his surprise she didn’t flinch, nor did she run away.   
She grabbed that little plastic bag she carried closer until her knuckles stood out and then she went over to her bike.   
She didn’t start riding away; instead she kept her eyes steady on them as if they were about to jump her at any given moment. She was about… six yards away maybe. It would still take Slit at least three leaps to get to her, not ideal. Plus they weren’t even Polecats, they didn’t trade with humans. And yet the girl kept her eyes on them, determined not to start pedaling until they would leave.

Nux didn’t notice the tension between Slit and this strange girl at all. Too busy chewing away, a full stomach being rare for him. “Aye, knucklehead, you ain’t eating? If we show these sandwiches at the Pits, you’ll have to fight Morsov and the others for them.”   
That much was true. So Slit turned away from the girl and peeled the package of the sandwich away to take a bite from it. Tuna and mayo, his favorite kind. Some egg in there as well. None of that vegan shit that some shops have started selling with spinach and celery and other disgusting stuff.

On their way back to the Pits, Nux and Slit blasted ACDC from the stereo in the car. They rode past some Mountain Riders and threw their half empty beer bottles at them while laughing. Then they drove over to the Gastown Boys. Slit liked hanging with them, though they were even more fucked up than any of the War Boys. They ran under Scrotus who was the epitome of fucked up. If there was any War Boy that Slit would be afraid of, it’d be him.   
That guy was big and brutal, no restraint inside him whatsoever. The War Boys that ran under him? More instable than Slit and his crew combined. But Scrotus was Joe’s son so everyone paid him the necessary respect. At least he wasn’t as dumb as Rictus.  
Howls and grunts came from the War Boys as Nux and Slit left their car. Two of their own crew, Yurosh and Krabat were there too. Not a surprise since they were in charge of getting guzzolene for their crew.

“Nux, Slit! What brings you here today? Don’t tell me you’re bored over there in the Pits.” Lug barked a short laugh and Slit chimed in with a grunt. “Nah, not bored. Just making sure you soft fuckers stay in line.” Lug came over to Slit and the two of them began shoving each other, grins still on their faces. “Anything interesting happened today?”

“Just the usual. Nux and I got something to eat and drink, nothing more.”

“And here I was hoping you’d bring in some fun.” Together they sat down around a small oven that managed to radiate enough heat to warm up the one of the garages of the Gastown Boys. Nux passed around the beer and they drank from their bottles. Scrotus was nowhere to be seen, praise Valhalla.  
“Hey, Lug…,” Nux began. None of the other crew members paid a lot of attention to Nux, all of them too busy to boast to each other about their latest achievements and raids. “You know about those girls the Immortan used to have?”

“I heard the same rumors as you then. What about ‘em?”

“How come the Immortan had girls and we aren’t supposed to? I mean…” Lug narrowed his eyes at him. “You questioning the Immortan Joe now? What is your crew doing over there in the Wastelands?”

Nux raised his hands in defense. “Didn’t mean to offend him. Or anyone. Just wondering.” Lug’s eyes remained narrow and Nux knew he had been the wrong one to talk to. _Dammit_ , he should have picked another one. Maybe Kaz would have been more understanding.

“Don’t tell me you goin’ soft now, Nux.” Lug pointed his fingers at his chest. “No girls, those are the rules.” His voice a grunt, he was positively intimidating right now. “Maybe our boys need to teach you a lesson before you develop a weak spot.”

With that the conversation stopped and Nux didn’t breach the topic again. The young men continued to banter and to yell, beer splashing inside bottles and they stayed together until the earlier hours of the morning. Slit and Nux took shortly after two AM and returned to their Pit. Without saying anything, Slit went to his bunk and fell into his blanket, pulling the thin sheet around him. Nux shuffled over to his own place, but for some reason he wasn’t tired. He didn’t need sleep yet, he needed to get his head clear.  
With a fresh package of cigarettes he went for a walk around the outer skirts of the Wastelands. His breath came out in white puffs from the cigarette and the smoke inside his lungs calmed him down. He took the route down the 8th lane and without realizing it he turned into the street where the Red Hut was. He was 60, maybe 80 minutes away from the Pits and his head didn’t feel any clearer. His feet hurt, his lungs burned and his skin was ice cold from the freezing night air. Standing in front of the café didn’t make him feel any better. Even worse when he checked his phone again and he had no messages from the fiery girl.

He frowned. A car turned into the street and he could see the rusted brown colors of the Buzzards. They yelled in surprise and Nux stomach dropped lower. He was alone. Sure, he had a gun and knives, but the Buzzards had to be equally armed. None of them would be stupid enough to go out unarmed.

As they came to a halt and climbed down from their car, Nux widened his stance. He wasn’t a lousy fighter, but taking four of them at the same time would be too much. They laughed and came towards him with slow, deliberate steps. Nux took the first one out after he had ducked away from his fist, just knocked him out cold, but the second one managed to kick him in the back. He got his arms around the third and wrestled him to the ground. But the fourth one kicked Nux in the head and he saw stars; just began dancing as fists started coming down on his face.

They were still dancing when everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters' titles don't have anything to do with the content by the way, they only sound cool.
> 
> Also, some of the War Boys have names from famous German novels; the person who can name one novel gets 1000 virtual dollars. $$$


	4. Day of the Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Capable comes to save Nux, Slit runs into Toast again in the city after Slit goes out looking for his lost partner.

Capable arrived at the café early that morning, but not to work. She just wanted to drop off a batch of cupcakes she had baked early in the morning when she hadn’t been able to sleep anymore. Joe had paid her a nightly visit and she had to run to the bathroom before she’d have vomited all over the floor. The nightmares she had to live with and so did her sisters. Toast and she were the ones that dreamt of Joe the most frequently, Angharad often being so tired because of the baby that she was unable to dream anymore.   
Her hands still felt clammy as she made her way down the street, her breath coming out in white puffs. East Citadel was constantly surrounded by heavy smog, but today the sky was a bright and clear blue, the air sharp and cold.

As she came closer to the Red Hut’s front door, she could see something on the ground. Red spots, rusted splashes of some liquid on the ground. Dried up and scattered all around her feet. She wondered if someone had gotten murdered the night before and she looked around in panic. Behind the dumpster in the alley next to the café she saw a pair of boots on the ground like someone had dragged the corpse there to hide it. Apparently hiding it well hadn’t been on the list of important aspects to consider when committing a felony by the murderer.  
First Capable opened the door of the café and placed the cupcakes behind the counter, then she returned to the dumpster with her phone in her hands.   
She didn’t want to call the cops, but maybe she could call Max instead. He’d know what to do. Suddenly, just as she went around the corner to check if she knew the corpse’s identity, it moved. Groaned and then its feet wriggled.

In a rush she went around the dumpster and saw Nux.

The War Boy had been beaten bloody, his face swollen, his lips burst and eyes surrounded by an unnatural black color. She thought about any other injuries that he could have that she didn’t see and she bent down to take a look at him. Capable may not have liked the encounter with him and yes, he did frighten her and he lived his life for Joe but she still wouldn’t let him lie in his own blood behind a dumpster. If you take an eye for an eye, you leave the world blind. Leaving someone behind in this state is something Joe did regularly and Capable knew she was a hundred times better than him.

With gentle hands she pushed his shirt up his body to inspect his abdomen for broken ribs. There were dark spots beneath his skin so maybe he had bruised ribs, but nothing that was life threatening. His skin was cold like he had been lying there for a long time, perhaps the entire night.   
She kneeled down next to him took his face into her hands, swaying it from left to right to wake him up. She didn’t want to slap him; his face was already damaged enough.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Nux only groaned and didn’t open his yes. “What happened to you?” As she kept cradling his face his eyes began to flutter open. “Hey, are you alright? Do I need to call an ambulance?” She didn’t think that he’d want her help, but she could still offer it anyway.

When Nux opened his eyes, he stared at the redhead, her fiery mane hanging around her face like waves of red velvet. He tried to speak, but couldn’t, his mouth didn’t move the way he wanted to; just didn’t listen to him. The words came out in an unintelligible murmur and he closed his eyes again.   
The stars dancing in his eyes were gone, but the pain remained. Even with the girl cradling his face he could feel the sharp pain in his ribs and his face. He tried to speak again but she cut him off.   
“You can’t speak right now. I think it’s because of your swollen face. Your lips are burst open, too. Can you sit up?” She slid a hand around his back to peel him off the ground and he winced as she lifted him into an upright position. His ribs were screaming and the world around him was blurry.   
“What are you doing here?” Capable asked him. They were quite a few blocks away from any War Boy territory. The Wastelands were way into the east of the city. “Took a walk at night. Ended up here.” He rubbed his side and winced again. Those ribs were going to be a pain in the ass for the next days, he was sure of it.

“You took a walk?” she said out loud. “You must be far from home.” Capable didn’t know if she should ask him who beat him up like that because clearly someone had taken a swing at his face the night prior. “Eh, can walk the way back. Easy.” Nux tried to stand up because there was no way he was going to be all weak in front of the redhead. Had to convince her that he was shine after all. But his legs didn’t do what he wanted them to and so the fiery girl put her arm around him to help him stand.

“Oh, that wound on your cheek is bleeding again.”

“’Tis nothing. Will walk it off.” But the girl just gave him the hairy eyeball.

“No, you won’t.” Capable was still very much aware of who this boy was and what he did all day long and most importantly: whom he served. She knew he was one of Joe’s. But if he bled to death right in front of the café, that could also mean more War Boys looking for their lost friend or even worse, looking for some kind of revenge. The last thing she wanted to deal with was a mob of angry War Boys coming to the café with torches. So she led him inside the café in small steps, not that he could have taken big ones anyway.

Once inside, she led the War Boy to a chair in the back of the room, away from any curious eyes that’d try to look in from the outside. Cheedo would start her shift in two hours and Ms. Jenkins wouldn’t be around until midday. Enough time for her to nurse the boy back alive.   
Capable disappeared in the rooms behind the counters and came back with several things in her arms. White cloth, something that looked like a toothpaste tube, a bottle with a clear liquid inside of it and white cotton pads. Furiosa had persisted on placing a first aid kit in the café, just to be on the sure side even though Capable hadn’t thought that it was necessary. If Joe would find them here, he’d inflict damage that no first aid kit could help with. But Furiosa had insisted and Capable had given in. Now that she had the need for this, she was thankful for Furiosa once more. Another addition to the list of things that Furiosa had done for the girls.

She sat down next to Nux, whose wounds were still bleeding. None of it got onto the ground, but his shirt was covered in red splashes. He felt miserable, worse than that one time Barrow had given him the beating of his life, that huge ass motherfucker. She opened the bottle with the clear liquid and Nux recognized what had to be inside. Alcohol, the smell of it stinging in his nose. “What do you need the alcohol for?” She didn’t plan to make him drink that, did she?

“I’ll dab the white cotton pads into it, then I’ll dab them onto your wounds. It’ll sting, but it’ll also disinfect your cuts and bruises. That way no infection can build up and you’ll look less messy.”   
Nux only nodded after she had finished talking and she continued to prepare those cotton pads as he watched, but on the inside he was marveling at her. The way she talked made her sound like an organic mechanic. Nux only ever had seen the Immortan Joe’s personal organic mechanic once, and only because Nux had had life threatening injuries back then from a car crash.  
That one encounter had been enough to let Nux know exactly how little he knew about his own body and how shine that guy had been.  
She leaned forward with the pad in her hands and Nux sat still as she dabbed it onto the cut on his left cheek. It stung, but he still didn’t move. Couldn’t move. She was so gentle, even as she put the stinging alcohol onto his wounds she was gentle. Her demeanor rendered him unable to think of anything, his mind was empty. At the same time his heart beat lowered and he felt each of her movements a thousand times on his skin. Her pinkie brushed against his upper lip and Nux had to catch his breath, then swallowed hard. This kind of gentle intimacy was utterly new to him, a revelation. Her touch was like a feather against his ragged skin.

Among War Boys, being gentle was a weakness. Being gentle meant being soft and if you were soft you couldn’t be a War Boy. The Immortan made sure that all the Imperators were rough with them to ensure that his army would remain hard and diligent. Growing up, Nux had experienced all kinds of beatings from all kinds of people. The boys would beat each other up regularly during hand-to-hand combat training (or real fights, depending on who got pissed at whom) or the Imperators would smack you if you showed any soft spots. Showing weakness was akin to traitoring the Immortan Joe himself. Unthinkable.

Now sitting in that small café, with only the redhead’s fiery mane and her lovely face to concentrate on, Nux didn’t understand. Such a feeling, the feeling of someone else’s fingers brushing against one’s skin like a feather shouldn’t be forbidden. He thought of all the times him and Slit had been rough with each other, a sign of their true friendship. Back then Nux had thought that that was the only way to show affection; now he was glad to know what being gentle felt like.

“Alright, I disinfected your cuts and wiped off most of the blood. You look better.” Nux just stared at her and Capable felt uncomfortable, awkward even. “Are you okay? Here, these are painkillers. Take one of those pills.”   
She pressed a small white package into his open hand and opened what Nux thought had been toothpaste. It was some sort of salve, and as Capable explained, Nux listened with care. Once more she dabbed it onto his cuts, but this time nothing stung. The only thing it left behind was a numbing of the pain.

When his face looked better and less like something out of a horror movie, she inspected his hands. Swollen knuckles, bruises over his fingers. “So, you’ve been in a fight with someone?” she asked. Not that she really wanted to know, she just wanted to fill the silence.

“Oh, yeah, Buzzards came around last night.”

“What were you doing here anyway? It’s not War Boy territory.”

“Told you. I took a walk.”

“Yeah, but why did you walk _here_? Could have stayed within your territory and no Buzzards would have attacked you.” Nux had to admit that she had a good point.

“I came back here because you work here.” As she stared at him in confusion, he added: “Thought maybe I’d run into you again, you know. Haven’t called me back or anything - which is cool! You don’t have to if you don’t wanna. Just, you know, uhm… I thought that, you know…” As Nux trailed off, his skin flushed a pink tone that surprised Capable. He was shy. Sitting here now, with them so close to each other, having to look at her, he was shy. Maybe even a bit embarrassed. She smiled ruefully.

“Yeah, I haven’t called you back.”

“And you don’t want to either.” It wasn’t a question because Nux had enough brain to know that girls like her didn’t look at War Boys. Scientific fact; it was healthier to stay away from War Boys for outsiders. War Boys were known to have fangs.  
The redhead looked like she was about to say something, opened her mouth, but closed it again. Before she could start to apologize to him, he cut her off. “It’s okay, you don’t have to. I’m already a pain in the ass, aren’t I? With me, holding you up at work, all bloody and dirty ‘n shit.”

This time she looked up and smiled at him. _Smiled_. He grinned back in satisfaction. At least he made her smile. “You’re not holding me up at work; the café hasn’t opened yet, at least not to anyone but War Boys with cuts and bruises because they strolled around too late at night.” Her tone wasn’t demeaning when she spoke so the light teasing didn’t upset Nux.

“What’s your name?” he asked her. It hadn’t even occurred to him to ask until now. The redhead stiffened as if she was thinking about telling him a false name, just in case things would go wrong. He let his shoulders drop.

“Capable. My name is Capable.”

So Capable dabbed alcohol on the open cuts on his hands, but she couldn’t do anything for the bruises. Bruises needed time to heal, he knew that much.

He wanted to introduce himself to her, but the War Boy training kicked in and he didn’t. War Boys were not to introduce themselves, may it be to outsiders or Imperators, with their own names. They always would be referred to as ‘that War Boy over there’ and they called other members that they didn’t know ‘crew’, simple as that. Only other War Boys from your own squad knew your name, maybe from other squads too if you worked closely together.  
Barrow was such a case. Barrow was in a different squad from Nux and Slit. His superior was Trez, but the two teams worked together so they knew each other’s names.

Nux was well aware that none of the Imperators knew his name, let alone the Immortan. Once the Immortan Joe had asked Gunner for his name and that motherfucker had been gloating for days to no end, as if he were riding on the damn sun itself. Nux had been the most envious he had ever been. To this day, he had never felt stronger envy.

The girl finished putting that milky cream onto his fingers and then looked up at him like she was expecting him to say something. He stared back, not knowing what she wanted.

“And your name?” she asked, her voice low and soft.

“It’s Nux.”

“Then it’s nice to meet you again, Nux.”

* * *

Over at the Pits, Slit was going through every room, searching for Nux since the early hours of the day. That asshole hadn’t returned to the Pits yet and it was almost 10 AM. He cursed and his left hand came up over his head, scratching his bald head. He hadn’t forgotten to shave that day, but the skin on his head was always rougher than on the rest of his body. He knew that if he wouldn’t shave as meticulously as he did, he’d have a head full of dark brown hair and a beard. He had to shave his chest too, unlike Nux who barely had a beard at all.

Then again, Nux was a bit younger than him and he had always been the more boyish one.

When he couldn’t find Nux in the workshop even though the Chevrolet was still parked outside, he decided to ask one of the boys. Unfortunately for him, only Morsov was hanging out in the workshop that day because he had had to go to the Organic Mechanic earlier that day and was ordered to stay in the city for the time being. That meant that Slit had to deal with him now and he wasn’t sure if he could handle an entire day of Morsov blabbering into his ear about shit. Hell, maybe Slit would just take the Chevrolet and drive it into a wall with him and Morsov in it just to make sure that Morsov couldn’t open that big mouth of his.

Mediocre piece of shit.

But Slit had to find Nux and Morsov was another set of eyes he could use while riding around, so as much as it pissed him off, he needed Morsov.

“Hey, Morsov.” The War Boy looked up from his seat and stared up at Slit, a dumb grin spreading his facial features. “What’s up, Slit?!”

“Nothin’ good. Gotta find Nux. He’s been missing since last night; didn’t come home to drive around in the Chevrolet either. Something is up.”

“You wanna go around to look for him?”

“Yeah. We’ll take the Chevrolet.”

“Shine. I’ll tag along.”

The two of them made their way to the car and Slit was already praying in his head to all the Gods from Valhalla and beyond to take him out of his misery. A lightning bolt would be quick. An aneurysm would work fine as well. If Morsov’s steps made annoyed him already, he could only imagine sitting in the car with him. But now there was no going back.  
A few War Pups stared at them with big eyes and Slit made sure to strut with straight shoulders. They’d have to grow up to become War Boys one day and it’d be better for them to have as many shine bastards like him around as possible.

Slit and Morsov ended up driving around for hours with no sign of Nux anywhere. Slit searched for one of Nux’s tags but there was no neon green color anywhere to be seen in the Wastelands. Dammit. When the afternoon came around, Slit finally had enough of Morsov and couldn’t stay around him any longer without commiting either suicide or homicide, so they drove by the Gastown Boys and Slit finally kicked him out. Some silence. _Final-fucking-ly_.  
His stomach had been howling for hours by that point and he figured he could use food and maybe a beer. He parked the car near some rundown bookstore; as he didn’t give the store a second glance, he didn’t see who came out of that store until the figure bumped into him. “Oi, watch out you ignorant fucker!” he yelled and shoved the other person out of the way.

“You watch out yourself! You ran into me!” a female voice yelled right back at him.

That made his head snap around, ready to beat up whoever dared to speak back to him like that. To his surprise, it was someone he knew, or at least had seen before. That little girl with the brown skin from the supermarket. He got out of his fighting position and lowered his arms again, his eyes scanning her from head to toe. Her hair was still short and spiky; her lips were still round even though she pressed them together into a line. Probably because she was angry at him for having ran into her.

“Not my fault! Being as fucking tiny as you are!” he barked and she got onto her feet. She was wearing some hoodie, jeans and sneakers. He saw that she had dirt on her ass, but he didn’t tell her. Let her run around with dirty clothes, wasn’t his business anyway.

“Maybe you should open your eyes some more, War Boy!”

He huffed, his irritation turning into wicked humor. “You know, only people with a death wish would talk to me that way.” He took a step closer to her but the girl didn’t back off.

“Even War Boys think I'm feral,” he drawled. “Maybe you lack some brain.”

“I ain’t afraid of some ugly ass boy trying to intimidate me ‘cus he ain’t got no other hobbies than to try to scare some random girl,” she spat out. With her hands she wiped any sand off her jeans and straightened her hoodie. The War Boy hadn’t come any closer again and she could take a good look at him. It was the same one she had ran into at the supermarket, the one that had stared at her. Toast remembered those scars, which wasn’t odd considering he was the first real life Joker imitation she had ever seen.  
He was bulkier than his other friend, and he looked deadlier, too. Broad shoulders, heavy jaw, deep-set eyes. That dark war paint on his forehead told her that he had a higher ranking among the boys, but judging by his pale skin he was no Imperator off-duty to get some books down the road.

“Then you definitely lack brain.” His words were still harsh in nature, but they had lost their aggressive undertone.  
He scanned the streets around them and then his eyes focused on her again. “What’s someone like you doing down here anyway? It’s Mountain Riders' territory just around the corner.” She didn’t look like the kind of person that’d go out to look for trouble, but considering the way she had handled him, she probably wouldn’t back down from a fight either. Too much pride perhaps? Not that she’d stand a chance.

“None of your damn business, War Boy.” She picked up her backpack and threw it over her shoulder, then she made her way down the street and away from him with secure steps. Toast didn’t look back and Slit didn’t speak to her again. At least she had backed down and left their argument. With Morsov’s voice still ringing in his ears, he didn’t think he would have taken any more provocation well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "He [Slit] was bulkier than his other friend [...]." - That friend would be Nux of course (see chapter 3 for Toast's and Slit's first encounter).


	5. The Burning Skies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls come home and have a hearty meal and some hearty talk about the War Boys. Capable tells Angharad about her interest in Nux, Toast is too smart for everybody's liking and some more Nux and Slit goofiness.

 When Toast came home, she threw her backpack into the corner of her room. She was the only one with a single room for herself, a luxury she cherished each time she had to think by herself and for herself. Right now she cherished it mostly because she could be angry in peace. Her hoodie had a loose seam and her ass was dirty from the ground, onto which she had fallen because of some damn War Boy. Getting dirty because of a lousy War Boy, just ridiculous. Toast had been lucky the boy hadn’t been out to hurt her at least, because she would not have been able to defend herself so easily.  
He had to have at least 80 lbs on her and he was tall, too. She’d have been so done if he would have decided to hurt her, or worse: bring her home as a souvenir for Joe. That would have been the worst of all options indeed.

Toast should have never looked at him in that store, she realized now that it was too late. Should have ignored him with his scars and his war paint and his stupid friend. Should have minded her own business, but no! Her own ego had to jeopardize her, of course. When she had met Slit in that stinky supermarket, she had stared back purely to spite him, to get him all riled up. War Boys, if you picked the right ones, were easy to play with because that’s how the Immortan liked his Boys. Stupid, bald gorillas with two brain cells. One for walking, one for breathing.

 _Ha_.

You just had to stare at them the wrong way and they’d get angry and start punching their chests like wild animals. That Joker Boy on the other hand had almost stayed calm, even when she had called him ugly, which was a punch below the waistline and she knew it. Besides, calling somebody out for physical flaws was never an actual argument, but rather a cheap insult. His scars were none of her business, even if he had ran her over with his big boots.  
Shaking her head, she started her newest playlist on her iPod. The entire music, every song on that damn thing she had downloaded illegally, of course. What person could afford as much music as they liked here in East Citadel? Certainly not her or her sisters. She hummed as Capable entered her room, she saw the red hair from the corner of her eyes. Toast pulled out the earphones and turned towards her sister.

“Hey, sorry I was gone all day. Did anything happen?” Capable asked, leaning against Toast’s door frame with her right shoulder.

“Nah, not that I know of, but I was gone most of the day, too. Came home around, what? Twenty minutes ago?” As Capable fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, Toast’s curiosity flared up. “Why are you asking?”

“No particular reason.”

And Toast would let Capable have whatever secret it was that she was carrying around. The girls had gotten used to their lack of privacy among each other a long time ago - getting raped by the same man over and over again had that kind of effect on you. But Toast was and always had been a loner, so it came naturally to her to leave other people in peace when they clearly didn’t want to share what was on their minds.

Toast saw the other one leaving her room and could feel her footsteps through the wimpy wooden floor. Their house was old and rundown; just like everything else in East Citadel was old and rundown. Wasn’t like anybody took care of anything here besides the owners themselves and considering the fact that their house had been standing empty for years, it was safe to say that its floors were fragile at their very best.

Upstairs, Capable sat on her bed while she watched Angharad compare catalogs with baby clothes. She was sure she didn’t want to get anything blue or pink, but rather white and other colors most people cast aside. Cream colored jumpers would look cute. That required money of course, but you could still dream.  
“Here, I made 50 extra bucks today. For you.” Capable placed the bills on Angharad’s nightstand. The older girl tried to refuse, but Capable put the money down anyway. “It’s important to have as much financial freedom as possible, for you and the baby. And I won’t miss it.” Capable gave her friend a reassuring smile before lying down on her back. As she was staring up the wall, she debated with herself. Should she tell Angharad about Nux? What about the others? What about Furiosa?

When she had finished stitching his wounds back together, they had talked a bit. After passing the initial awkwardness between them, there had been no stopping him. He had confessed to her about several things. First, she had only wanted to make small talk so she had asked him about where he came from, what he did every day and it had turned into a very long and rather sad confession on his part.  
The War Boys only hope to achieve anything, as told to them by their superiors, was to impress said superiors and the Immortan. They were worth very little to anyone but maybe other War Boys, which explained why he wasn’t expecting anyone to come for him soon. He had told her about the way they grow up, all the beatings they had to suffer. And no one ever there to protect them from savage cops or other gangs. Most of the War Boys didn’t live past 30, which meant that Nux was almost through his entire life span at the age of 23.  
Their daily lives didn’t look any brighter. They sat around most of the time, working on engines and vehicles if they had the necessary skills for it (and Nux had sheepishly admitted to her that he was one of the best blackthumbs out there after Capable had asked him about it) and the only joy they had was to go out on raids on Buzzard or Mountain Rider territory. Besides that, there was nothing there. She had tried to ask him about his favorite books, thinking that someone with that much free time surely did a lot of reading, but no. He hadn’t known any of the titles she had asked him about, even though they had been very famous ones.

It was right then that she realized the Immortan Joe used the War Boys just like he had used her and her sisters. And all those other girls before them. The only difference was that the War Boys were weapons without independent minds. What he used them for was different, but the result was still the same.  
He kept the boys from knowing the real world on purpose, told them anything that could ‘distract’ them was forbidden. Anything that would have made dying for the Immortan less important, anything that would undermine his power. He told her that girls were on that long list of forbidden things as well. All while his skin had been a dip pink color that no chalky war paint could hide.

She had reminded him that he had still given her his number. Nux had smiled at that, the scars on his lips stretching across the ragged skin. In a reflex, Capable had reached over with her hand and had swiped her thumb across his lips. When she had disinfected his wounds for him, it had been purely medicinal. This touch had had nothing to do with that. Nux had only stared at her with big moon eyes.

Now Capable regretted having thrown away his number. Asking him to write down his number again had not been an option though. It was one thing to spend time with trouble personified, it was a whole other to ask for its number. While temptation had been in the back of her mind, her experience had kicked in and she had bitten her own tongue to keep silent. The War Boy had left the café soon afterwards and that had been it.

“Angharad? I think I met someone.” Capable turned her head to stare at her best friend. She had to read her emotions because by judging her she could guess better about everyone else’s reactions to her taking a liking to this War Boy.

“Really? When?”

“Today. I met him again today.”

“So you have met him before? Were you on a date?” Angharad questioned. She sounded joyful, but Capable knew her best friend too well to be able to keep up the façade.

“Not really. I met him on my way to the café this morning. He’s…” As Capable trailed off, Angharad stared at her in confusion. “So he was on his way to work?”

“No. He came by again to meet me at the café once more.”

“It’s that War Boy, isn’t it?” Angharad whispered. Capable stared at her friend before nodding and the two girls didn’t speak for a while.

“Oh, Capable…Why… Why did you talk to him again?” Her voice wasn’t judgmental, which was a good sign. “Because he was hurt and he was bleeding all over the ground where he had been lying for hours. I had to help him.” Capable sat straight. “We’re not like Joe. He would’ve let this boy lie in his own blood, but we have promised to each other to rise above. To rise above and be better.

“This was my chance to rise above, Angharad.”

He hadn't hurt her, he hadn't threatened her. She could hardly hold him responsible for what Joe had done to her. It wouldn't be fair to punish him for the things Joe had done to them. Capable would do better than that. “If we start behaving like Joe than he won. I refuse to lower myself onto his level.”

Angharad stared back at Capable and the two of them raised their chins in mutual agreement. “Come here,” Angharad told her and Capable shuffled over to sit down next to her.  
“I only want you to be careful, Cape. I trust you enough to know that you won't do anything stupid. If you trust him not to be a murderous psychotic jerk, then I am okay with it.”

“With 'it'?” “You and him.” Capable tilted her head in amusement. “There's no me and him.”

“Yeah, but whatever happens between you two, I'm okay with it. Don't know about the others though. Or Furiosa.”

“I'm not going to tell Furiosa or the others. Besides, I threw away his phone number when he gave it to me the other day.”

“Oh, no! Now you regret it, don't you.” A small smile made Angharad’s lips curl upwards. Of course she'd be right. “I do. He didn't ask again if I'd call him back though. Don't think he's expecting to hear from me.”

“You always see each other again in life. Citadel East isn't that big.” Capable nodded and Angharad took her hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“So, how was your doctor appointment today? Everything good with your baby?”

They spent the next hour just chit chatting about the news the doctors gave Angharad. The baby was healthy and growing stronger each day, they told her she should get ready to go to a hospital because her due date was approaching and she should try not to worry too much. It'd be alright.   
As they went down for dinner, the other girls came out of their rooms to sniff the scents in the kitchen. “Hm, something with bell pepper I think. Onions too,” the Dag mused. “You always say that dinner contains onions,” Cheedo replied and they had to giggle. “That's because I am always right,” the Dag said and shrugged. They all sat down at the table and waited for the Vulvalini to come to sit down as well.

Furiosa strode into the room, her prosthetic arm not to be seen anywhere; she probably put it away in her room. Dark circles made her look tired and she still had some grease on her forehead as she almost fell into a chair. The five girls looked at her in worry.

“Are you alright?” Toast asked. “The War Rig has been giving me some trouble, but it's nothing I can't fix. Just need some time, that's all.” The other women came from the kitchen and placed pots with food on the table. While Furiosa reached over to take a scoop of the stew, her eyes fell on Capable.

“Anything happen today?”

“No, nothing worthwhile. Went to the café to drop the cupcakes off, that's it.” Cheedo glanced at Capable. “I sold almost all of them today, Cape! And no War Boys came back either. Was a good day today.” Furiosa looked back at Capable. “You see no War Boys as well?”

Sitting in the spotlight like this, Capable felt uncomfortable and shifted her weight in the seat. She hated lying to them, didn't want to do it. But telling them about Nux, or worse, telling them that she found the idea of talking to him again rather tempting, was out of question. It'd cause a fight she didn't want to have. Not now.  
Toast noted her uneasiness and interrupted her before she could say anything.

“I saw one today. Almost ran me over with his stupid boots.” Everyone's heads turned to stare at her. “I came out of the book store and there he was. Saw him too late and he ran into me 'cus he didn't see me.”

“How'd he react?”

“Just yelled at me. Told me it was my fault for being 'so goddamn tiny'. A real A-grade asshole if you ask me.” She picked up her fork and put a piece of bell pepper into her mouth. Chewing, she continued talking. “I told him to fuck off with his ugly ass and that was it. He didn't come after me or anything.” Toast had added the last part because Furiosa looked like she was ready to find that boy and break his bones if need be.

“Good.” And that was it. Toast glanced at Capable and she knew that Toast knew more than she had led on. Toast was sharp like that. But also had the attractive quality of not prying when you weren't supposed to. She wanted her privacy and in return gave it to others when they needed it. Though it also made her somewhat of a lone wolf within their little group.

 

* * *

 

“Oi, there you are, ya asshole!” Slit hollered as he jumped out of the car.

“Where ya been? Been searching for you; I even asked Morsov to help me. _Morsov_.” Slit made a disgusted sound as if the encounter had left a nasty taste on his tongue. He would rub his 'sacrifice' into Nux's face for the next months to come.  
“Morsov? You talked to Morsov?” Nux grinned and grabbed Slit by his neck, rubbing the skin there. “I knew you two would get along. Soon enough, y'all be best friends. Best friends forever! You could get tattoos, matching tattoos-” Slit shoved Nux away, but there was still a grin on his scarred mouth.

“Alright. I'll stop.” Nux held up his hands in defense, then grinned at Slit with a new kind of gleeful happiness. “I met the girl from the café again today.” Slit's eyes widened and he let go of Nux's neck. “She the one who gave you that beating to your face?” Somehow, the thought of her kicking Nux's ass was hilarious to him.

“'Course not. Ran into Buzzards during a walk through town. Ended up in unclaimed territory and there they found me.” He became serious. “Slit, she stitched me up damn good. Put alcohol on the bruises and cuts. Wiped off the blood on my fingers. She's real damn shine, I'm telling you.”  
Nux's eyes became glossy as he recalled her face, her hair, her hands. All of her had been so lovely. Unlike his hands, hers had been clean and without cuts or scars. Her skin had been without blemishes or any spots at all besides some freckles on her nose.

Valhalla, she was extraordinary.

“Nux, stay out of trouble. First the Buzzards, then a girl? Soon enough you'll be soft. And you know what happens when you get soft – Joe will kick your ass.” Nux gave Slit a punch to the guts, a move the latter expected and blocked with ease. Slit was too good at reading people, very much unlike himself.

“I'm serious. No girl is worth getting kicked out of the War Boys. You belong here, this is where you need to be, not with some random girl.”

“Capable.”

Slit stared at him in confusion. “Capable. That's her name.”

“I don't care what her name is.”

“Yeah, man, whatever.”

“You going to meet her again?”

“She hasn't called me again if that's what you want to know. But if I ran into her again and if she were up to it...,” he trailed off, imagining himself with her. Maybe ride on his bike to a nice place in East Citadel. Somewhere outside into the desert. What did the normal people do on such dates? Did they bring food? Did they bring their own guns in case of danger? What if she'd be afraid of him if he'd be armed? He didn't want her to be afraid of him and he wouldn't take any chances either. This was his one and only chance he figured.

No guns then.

He imagined her fiery hair, colored by the setting sun in vivid shades of orange and red, making it bleed and turn like chemical fire all through the desert's earth toned colors. He'd definitely like her hair in the sunset, he thought. It'd be shine as fuck.

“Let's go back to the Pits then before we start catching dust and rust.” Slit stomped over to the Chevrolet, his boots leaving heavy sounds each time he took a deliberate step. Those homeless people better not come back here, he thought. This was Joe's turf and there was no room for the Wretched here.  
Nux followed along without paying attention to Slit and only when he turned to his lancer to ask him if he thought he could get enough money to go on an actual date somehow – whatever little money they had was barely enough to keep them clothed and fed – he saw a new expression on Slit's face. At least he thought it was new.

His face wasn't easy to read. For one because of the scars. They distorted his face and even a genuine smile could look like a frown, then you had to add the fact that Slit wasn't a very expressive person on top of that. Nux knew why Slit kept his emotions under such a strict guard. It wasn't Joe's doing, but rather just Slit himself.  
It was a simple self-protection mechanism; he had seen it happen so many times. With all the shit that had happened to Slit, he had learned to keep his emotions nicely wrapped up like a bottle of high percentage liquor. Because each time Slit had opened himself up, it had all spilled out with devastating consequences for his own mental well-being.

“What are you thinking about?” Nux wouldn't ask him what he was feeling at the moment, that'd be too direct; even if they were partners.

Slit didn't answer through the entire ride. Nux didn't ask again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Stupid, bald gorillas with two brain cells. One for walking, one for breathing." - this refers to two things: A) In MMFR, we can see Slit punching is chest like a gorilla, I thought that was hilarious. And B) in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander has that kind of reputation among her colleagues (and both Slit and Lisbeth don't deserve that kind of reputation).
> 
> "The Joker Boy [...]." - refers to The Joker aka Batman's enemy obviously.
> 
> "The entire music, every song on that damn thing she had downloaded illegally, of course." - Relatable.
> 
> "'This was my chance to rise above, Angharad.' - This comes from a Grey's anatomy episode where Dr. Bailey (a black woman) has to operate on a white Nazi and while he's in the OR and she's standing there with her scalpel, she tells herself she must 'rise above' and to be better by not killing him on purpose.
> 
> \---  
> I am receiving so many nice comments, it really helps keeping motivated and focused ;A; I also got a new laptop and writing is so much more fun with a well functioning keyboard.


	6. The Reign of Giants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nux and Slit run into Capable and Toast. It's a double date much to the horror of Slit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to make this chapter a bit longer because I feel like the chapters are a bit too short. Hopefully I can stick to 10-15 pages per chapter from now on.

Nux woke up to no new messages the next morning. His bed was cold even with himself in it, a nice side effect of having only bloody wool blankets to cover yourself with when you slept. His mattress was old and used by plenty of boys before him. Each time he rolled over he felt the sharp ends of metal springs poking his back.  
He wondered where Capable slept. Hopefully in a nice warm bed with pillows stuffed with soft feathers and a thick blanket to keep her warm. Not many people in East Citadel could afford nice housing since furniture was so damn expensive. The War Boys tried to make everything themselves. The results weren't always convincing. The Pits were filled with clumsily made chairs and wonky tables. Nothing fit together and nothing was coordinated. There had been one time where he had gone with Slit to the Immortan's palace. Nux wasn't sure it actually had been a palace but a house that shine had to be. Or maybe a mansion. They called it the Summit because it was the highest building in all of East Citadel. A giant part of it belonged to Joe's sons: Rictus Erectus, Corpus Colossus and Scabrous Scrotus.

Nux had never met Corpus and so had any other War Boy. Rumor had it that he was weak of some kind, just like Rictus was weak in his head. That was no secret. Rictus was just kind of dumb. A big, dumb giant of a man with a brute mind. Then there was Scabrous Scrotus. He was just as big and brute as Rictus, but he was a whole different kind of kamacrazee. He was straight up psychotic and you could see it in the boys that ran under him as well. He was rarely at the Summit because he spent his time in Gastown. He was the reason the Gastown Boys died as quickly as they did; they even fought among each other. The other boys didn't do that.

That time he had gone to the Summit with Slit, thankfully Scabrous hadn't been there. Even Slit was intimidated by him whenever they ran into him. The War Boys that ran under Ace always avoided him for good reasons.  
The Summit had been fucking unbelievable. Shiny chandeliers with glowing light, diamonds on the walls and gold in the marble ground. There had been fountains with water and trees with pink leaves inside of it. Nux had never seen those in his life before. He would have liked to take the petals on the ground with him but Slit had stopped him. It was the Immortan's property and not to be touched by a lowly War Boy.

It had been such a contrast to the way the boys lived, all dirty and with hand-me-downs. He hadn't been jealous of the Immortan, instead it had only strengthened his wish to die on the Fury Road for all the glory. Certainly if he'd go to Valhalla, he'd live like this, too.  
Like this, his thoughts returned to Capable. He wasn't so sure anymore if he wanted to die and go to Valhalla anymore. He wanted to stay with her just a little longer. Watch her hair catching rays of sunlight for a bit more.  
What kind of house did she live in? A mansion as well? He'd be so out of place there, with his leather jacket, his cargo pants and tattoos. Her family surely couldn't be fond of him.

With a sign, Nux got up and rubbed over the bruises in his face. A quick glance in a dusty mirror told him the bruises had turned purple, but the cuts looked half as bad as they had the day before. All thanks to Capable.  
For a moment he contemplated getting into trouble again, just so she'd patch him up again, but he couldn't count on her being at the café every day. That'd push the boundaries of 'stupid' a bit too far.

“Ey, Nux, want a cig?” Yurosh asked when Nux came into the main room of the Pits. It had been a giant storage room long time ago, now it was the War Boy's heart in the Wastelands. Nux accepted the cigarette held out by Yurosh with a nod and sat down next to him.

“Your face looks bad man, what happened to you?”

“Buzzards.” Yurosh made a face.

“You went out alone?”

“Just went for a walk and there they were. Couldn't possible take on everyone of 'em.”

“Shit, you should've called for reinforcement from us. I would've come. Doesn't happen everyday you get to beat up a few low-life Buzzards.”

“Didn't have no time, Yurosh.” He made a grunt and pressed his fingers against his ribs. They hurt, but didn't feel broken at least. It'd take him a few days to bounce back. Nux and Yurosh shared a can of stew over the heating place and kept talking about the current events in East Citadel. Scabrous still ran wild through the city, but it was Rictus who was constantly hunting these past moths. Ever since Furiosa had escaped, he had been out in the badlands, the desert and destroyed landscapes surrounding East Citadel, and had been hunting her. Rictus claimed he was always close on her heels, always on her track like a dog, but even the War Boys themselves doubted that. Nux didn't think Furiosa had left East Citadel; they would have heard of a giant war rig leaving the city. Would have found actual traces of it. If he'd be the one to find Furiosa, Valhalla, maybe he could go to the Summit again. Maybe he'd get his own place, he thought. Maybe he would be able to invite Capable there and show her how shine he could be.

That made him check his phone again. As he saw the lack of messages, Yurosh looked up from his watery stew. “You expecting messages? Something going on I don't know of?”

“Nah, it's nothing. Thought maybe Slit would have sent me a message. But that fucker's gone.”

“Yeah, went downtown again. Didn't tell me what he was up to.”

“He never does.”

“True.”

 

* * *

 

Slit drove around with his bike through parts of the wretched city. He loved the feeling of the city's streets fleeing beneath him like he was flying. In his mind he surely was, flying so high on adrenaline that no Wretched could reach him and that even Joe had to pay him respect. This was the closest Slit came towards serene comfort with himself.  
He drove all the way into Rock Rider territory, flipped them off when they started chasing him down the street – as if they could keep up with him, sitting on a machine that Nux had made chrome, _as if_ – and then drove into unclaimed land again. He realized he was at the same place as the day before, with that rundown bookstore to his right. Taking out a cigarette from his jacket, he started smoking. His scars were itching today and he had to keep himself from scratching at the scar tissue.

From the other side of the street, Toast was watching Slit (unknowingly to him) through the window of the book store. She was standing at the register and since most clients were still roaming through the shelves filled with books, she could stare as much as she needed to.  
She knew it was the same guy she had seen in that stanky supermarket, she knew it was the same one she had run into the day before. There really was no escaping the War Boys, was there? Like a festering wound, they just popped up everywhere.

What she was concerned about was that Capable was supposed to come around in a few minutes. And that boy was still lurking on the other side of the street. He could recognize Capable, her hair was like a dead giveaway from miles away.  
Nervously she shifted her weight from one foot onto the other, her fingers tapping on the counter in an uncoordinated rhythm. Maybe she could go outside and sneak past him and catch Capable before she'd turn into this street. She knew the way she'd come here because Toast took the same route every time she came to this place.  
But she was smaller than her sisters and her hair and appearance were less noticeable, something Toast liked to be take pride in. She could easily disappear in the dark alleys of East Citadel without anybody seeing her. She was good at adapting like that. Real practical.  
The problem was though that her boss wasn't as forgiving as Ms. Jenkins was. Mr. Doose was a short man in his fifties, maybe sixties with gray hair and a increasing bald spot on his head. His overblown self-importance made him a deeply annoying man to be around. And today out of all the days, he stood at the register next to Toast because 'he liked to stay in contact with his clients' that way.

Just a pain in the ass and now Toast couldn't get away and save herself and her sister.

It was already too late when she looked outside the next time. The War Boy had turned his head around, vaguely staring at someone coming around the corner next to the book store. She knew that Capable must have seen him because she wasn't stupid. The boy got up from his bike and made a few long striding steps towards whoever he was looking at. At the far end of the dirty windows of the store, she could see a flash of red.

“Damn you,” Toast muttered.

 

* * *

 

Slit had seen the redhead the moment she had stepped into his sight. A mane of red hair like that was screaming for attention. _Stupid_ , he thought, _to ask for attention in this city_. She should darken her hair with soot to blend in better. But he still made his way over to her. He had business to deal with and it'd be better to get it all over with.  
She saw him as he jaywalked and he flipped off a few cars that honked at him. Slit stopped in front of her, successfully standing in her way, there would be no way she could flee from him. Good.

“Redhead, been looking for you.” She stared at him with eyes and took a few steps back.

“I remember you.” Of course she'd remember him. He had been scary enough to leave an impression after all. “I'm Nux's partner.” She didn't say hello.

“Got a message for you. Stay away from Nux.” As she raised her eyebrows, he continued. “He's a War Boy, he has to remain a War Boy until he dies, he owes it the Immortan. He doesn't need some girl distracting him. Boys that get distracted die in this city.”  
She straightened her posture and looked him dead in the eye.

“Are you done?” He was confused. “Yeah?”

“Well, so am I. If Nux doesn't want to talk to me, he'll tell me so himself. Until then, leave-”

“Capable!” Toast came hurrying out of the store. She had managed to sneak out a few minutes before the end of her shift thanks to Mr. Doose taking a break to eat a greasy lunch. “Here you are. Let's go.”

Toast came to a halt next to her sister.

“And who are you?”

“Her sister.”

“Capable's sister.” He frowned. “You don't look like sisters.”

“What's it to you? I thought a War Boy like you had no business with street trash like us,” Toast replied. Slit grinned, his scars stretching far across his face and yet the little girl in front of him didn't flinch. Instead her jaw came down like she was biting down on her molars. _Impressive_ , he thought, _this made her a first_.

“And how do you know her name?” Toast inquired. Capable looked at the ground before Slit barked a rough laugh. Toast's jaw dropped. She turned her attention to her sister again. “You told Nux your name?”

“Yeah, I have.”

“Capable, you- have you told him anything else?” Toast pulled her sister away from the War Boy. “Have you told him anything about us? Have you told him where we _live_?”

“Of course not! I wouldn't do that to you! Not after everything that happened.”

Slit stared at the girls in confusion. The reaction of that little one had been more than just a bit afraid, she had sounded downright panicky. Like she was afraid for her life. He knew he was bad, but she hadn't been afraid of him before so what had changed?

“So what I know her name?! Doesn't matter. Only came here to tell you to stay away from War Boys if you know what's good for you.”

“Don't worry, War Boy. We won't hold you up. Have nice _fucking_ day.” Toast turned her back to Slit and she coaxed Capable away from his sight. They made sure to get out of his sight before going to a nearby diner called 'Luke's' and they sat down at the table from which they could keep a good look on Clump street while their backs would be directly against the wall. Nobody to come at them from behind. _A good place to sit_ , Toast mused.

“I'm sorry,” Capable began. “I didn't think we'd run into him like that.”

“I know, but this is East Citadel. They are everywhere.”

“I'm sure Nux didn't mean any harm when he told him my name.”

“Why did you tell him in the first place?” With a hushed voice, she confessed her encounter with Nux to Toast. Her sister didn't move nor did she frown, but her eye narrowed at certain points in the story, like when Nux had told her about his hope to impress Joe. It was a ridiculous wish in Toast's mind because Joe never noticed anyone but himself. Nux was still a War Boy who believed in the omnipower of Joe so there was no way Capable had the freedom to make any mistakes.

“You didn't mention Furiosa, did you?”

“Gods, no, I didn't. I only told him my name, didn't even mention you or any of the others. Didn't mention Max either.”

Their french fries arrived. Dipping the salted potato stripes into their chili sauce, Capable continued. “I don't think Nux is bad.” “He's a War Boy.” “He's miserable. Joe uses him like he used us. He's worth nothing to him and I think on some level he understands it. You should have seen him, Toast. The way he looked at me when I treated his wounds. He's only used to punishments, so that when I touched him he was almost _afraid_ of me.”  
Toast narrowed her eyes at Capable. “You've always been so idealistic.”

“I know.”

She sighed and eyed her sister and her trouble creating decisions hard. “Well, I trust you not to do anything stupid.” “Really?” Capable asked. “Yeah. You may be a dreamer, but you're not stupid. If you're careful and don't rat us out to that little War Boy of yours, I think it's gonna be okay.

“Just be careful, okay? It's not just your life, it's mine, Cheedo's, Dag's, Angharad’s and her baby's. Let alone Furiosa and Max. He'd straight up kill them if he'd get his fat old hands on them. If you do something reckless, it'd be everyone's downfall.”

“Then you should be relieved that I threw the paper with his phone number on it into the trash.”

Toast whistled and smiled at her sister. “You regret it? Don't tell me you're gonna dig through the trash behind the café tomorrow.” Capable laughed and pushed her messy red curls behind her ear.

“No, I haven't sunken quite _that_ low.” They both grinned and continued eating their fries.

 

* * *

 

After the girls had wandered off, Slit had gone back to his bike, but he hadn't gotten on it. He had meant to, but instead he had kept leaning on it without moving.  
Those girls really had some tough balls if they handled him like the way they had. Tough cookies. He liked that. Though he still maintained that they had no brains. Slit had no intention of hurting them (what was the point? They didn't linger around on War Boy territory, being all useless like the Wretched) and if they knew what was good for them they'd stay away anyway.  
He took out his phone from inside his leather jacket and sent a text to Nux. That idiot replied way too quickly for him to be casual about it, Slit thought. Probably stared at the phone's screen all day long for a message from the redhead.

_Saw the redhead in town_

_When? Where_

_Just now at that rundown bookstore near Clump street. Stay away Nux_

No answer.

_Nux? Stay the fuck away_

Afterwards Nux hadn't texted him anything else again and Slit knew the fucker would come around on his bike on high speed. Freakin' stupid. But if it'd come down to it, Slit always had the option of telling Ace or any other boss. They wouldn't take Nux's bullshit and would make him straighten out. Would make him stop with all that crap about girlfriends.  
And what would you know? There he was, turning around the corner on his bike. Some War Boy he was, chasing after some girl from the streets.

Nux saw him and came to a halt next to Slit. “Where'd she go?” Nux asked with the excitement of a puppy.

“Nux.”

“Where to?”

“Don't know. Somewhere down the street. I didn't follow them, I ain't some creep.” Besides, what business did Slit have with them? None, that was what.

“Alright, asshole. You're as useful as an empty bag of chips sometimes, you know that?” Nux retorted. Slit punched his shoulder and made Nux wobble on his bike. “I'll go look for her then. See ya at the Pits tonight.”

“She wasn't alone.”

“No shit? Who was with her?” Nux thought for a brief moment that maybe she already had a boyfriend. What a shame that would be.

“Her sister was with her.” That little one had been a weird tiny thing, all spite and fight. Just like when he'd seen her at the supermarket. Her scornful words had been amusing to him as if she could pose a real threat to him, but that didn't matter. Just that she'd take it up with him out of spite was impressive. Made her something to look out for.  
Her red haired friend had seemed less inclined to insult him, maybe she was softer than her sister like that. Just like Nux was softer than him.

“Her sister? Didn't know she had a sister.” Then again, did he really know anything about her? When he had met Capable again that one morning, he had only talked about himself and she had said very little about herself. Now he felt stupid for not having asked more questions. Where did she come from? What was her family like? If she had a sister, maybe she had a father and a mother as well. He wondered what that would be like, to have a family. He wouldn't ask Slit about it.

Too traumatic for him.

Nux got off his bike and put the keys into his jacket. He grinned at Slit. “Wanna go look for the two?”

“You're getting soft, Nux.”

“Do you want to? Could be fun. Just you, me, Capable and her sister.”

“Fun? You're a War Boy. The only fun you're supposed to have is during war. How do you ever plan on entering Valhalla if you play around like that, getting soft 'n shit...”

“Whatever man, stay here if you want to. I'll go.” Nux started crossing the street without looking back at Slit. He thought about the redhead's sister again. Then he cursed and jumped the next steps to walk next to Nux. “You're stupid and you're getting soft. Just here to make sure you'll stay righteous.”

Nux grinned at him with a twinkle in his eyes. He understood Slit better than he'd like him to.

“Of course, just to check on me.”

Nux and Slit made their way down the street, way past the bookstore that Toast worked in. They looked into dirty windows of weird shops and empty houses. As they came around the corner, Slit saw a diner and inside of it he saw two girls sitting in the far back. That had to be them. A black girl and a redhead, he couldn't tell more than that; sun was shining at a too difficult angle to judge.

“Look.” Nux had snapped around and he took a quick glance at the diner, then stormed into it. If he wouldn't have had legs, he probably would have flown into it.  
Slit followed and came in just after Nux. The two girls had seen them, how could they not? Both tall and in their blacks, with war paint fresh on their skin.  
Slit rolled his shoulder and to his liking he saw the little one glare at them like she could spit fire. What a sight that'd be.  
The redhead turned around to look at them as well and she smiled at them. Just smiled, like she had never seen anyone lovelier coming her way. Slit's hand found its way onto his cheek, just to make sure that he still had the scars. Yup, he did, so why was she so happy? They should be afraid.

“Hey,” Nux said as he approached them with a jump in his step. “Been looking for you, Capable.”

“Really?” She didn't seem to mind and she stayed relaxed as he stood in front of their table.

“Didn't know War Boys chased after girls in their free time. You got nothing else to do?” The black girl took a sip from her milkshake, clearly pleased with her snarky insult.  
“Just the soft ones,” Slit grumbled from behind Nux. He had never chased after a girl, it was Nux who was soft.

Capable looked at Nux with a concerned look like she was afraid Slit could have hurt his feelings, but Nux continued to beam at her like she was shine. “You can sit down if you'd like to, you know?” Capable offered.

Toast grew stiff in her seat as Nux lowered himself into the booth next to her sister. Slit remained unsure what to do. All three of them stared at him like he was a bit crazy, then he sat down next to Toast while cursing. “Swear to the Gods, Nux, if anybody sees us here, I swear to-” “Then what? Daddy's not gonna let you drive your stupid cars anymore, War Boy?” Toast replied nonchalantly. She stuck another fry into her mouth. He turned his head to her, ready to give an equally snarky reply, but instead he stared at her lips as she chewed. She had rounder lips than her sister, well fitting for her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were as dark as her short hair. She looked more ragged than Capable.

“War Boys stay away from girls, we stay on the right path. Stay pure,” he answered.

“So we're not pure to you?” she shot back, her eyes flashing in anger. Slit didn't know what to reply to that because no, describing her as dirty seemed not fitting. Her sister wasn't dirty either, but it wasn't right for him and Nux to hang out with them anyway.

“You're outsiders,” he told her. “We don't do business with outsiders.”

Toast looked back at Capable in amusement. “Cape, you remember wanting to do business with these boys? I sure don't.” Another demonstrative sip from her milkshake. It was some pink color like she had bled into her milky drink. Slit didn't know what else could explain the pink color, nor did he know what it tasted like.

“Don't listen to Slit, he's an asshole.”

“I know, that's the exact word I used before to describe him.” Slit glanced at Toast again. She had talked about him? To whom?

“There a few others I could teach you!” Nux replied with another goofy grin. “Asshole, twat, jerk...” “Aye!” Slit yelled as he reached over the table to slap Nux, but Capable stopped them from starting a full brawl with her hands on Nux's shoulders. His partner looked at the redhead with a sudden glory Slit hadn't seen before on other War Boys.

Toast giggled into her milkshake and Slit turned his attention back to her. She smiled at Capable and Nux, who were both busy in their own little world, without that usual look of scorn and anger clouding her face.  
Just to spite her he took some of her fries with a fast move from his hand, but she just pushed the little plastic tray of fries towards him without glaring at him like he had intended for her to do.

“You can have the rest of the fries if you want, War Boy.” They were cold by now anyway and they'd get a good warm meal at home like every day.

Slit ate them without giving a snarky response. “You know, you War Boys really don't seem like you eat enough.”

“You trying to tell me I look weak?” He frowned and put his elbows on the table just to flex beneath his leather jacket. Hopefully she saw the muscles underneath, she had to.

“No, just saying you don't look like you have a lot of money.”

“Don't need it. We have enough to buy what we need and everything else we get from the Immortan. Money clouds your mind, you can get addicted to it.”

“I know.” Toast narrowed her eyes at him again. Was he so blind that he couldn't see how fat and marbled Joe was? That he didn't notice that Joe didn't keep to the rules he imposed on the War Boys because the rules were shit?

The logo that Joe had seared into her skin at the back of her neck gave her the answer. No, he didn't see.

“You don't seem rich either,” Slit retorted. Toast sighed. “Yeah, I work at that bookstore. Doesn't make tons of money. Doesn't make you rich but it pays the bills. Pays for the food I want to eat. Could be worse than that.

“I'm Toast by the way.” “Toast?” She nodded. “Like that white bread?” She rolled her eyes. “Do you need me to spell it out for you?”

“Nah, it's just a weird name.”

“Well then, War Boy, what is yours?”

“I'm Slit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Mr. Doose was a short man in his fifties, maybe sixties with gray hair and a increasing bald spot on his head." - Mr. Doose is a character of the show Gilmore Girls.
> 
> "They made sure to get out of his sight before going to a nearby diner called 'Luke's' and they sat down at the table from which they could keep a good look on Clump street [...]" - Luke's diner is another reference to Gilmore Girls.
> 
> "Daddy's not gonna let you drive your stupid cars anymore, War Boy?" - The Immortan makes the War Boys call him 'daddy' (gross, I know)


	7. The Neon Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nux and Slit go on a raid. Toast gets drunk. There's a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to warn you that there's some puking going on at some point in this chapter so if you're sensitive about it, be aware.
> 
> Then I'd like to say that I've tried my hardest to make sure that it's clear that Slit doesn't do anything to Toast. There is no non-con going to happen like this in this fanfic, so I've tried to make it crystal clear that he's not touching Toast at all. If it's not clear I'd like some feedback on how to make it clearer, thank you!

I am the ghost  
I am the sword  
I am the ghost

I'm gonna take you for a ride  
Everything is supposed to get in  
I just don't know where I'm a-getting it from  
I'm gonna take you for a ride  
What is the cause of it, and  
Well, in that case, how do you know it's your own?

 

* * *

They stayed in the diner for another hour or so before both boys' phones started ringing. Slit and Nux both took one glance at them and then grinned at each other in excitement.  
“A freaking raid! Maybe into Buzzard territory! Damn, that’s great! Chrome as fuck!” Slit said while grasping Nux’s shoulder. “Bet we’ll be making money tonight, gotta be.” Unless the War Boys found something that was of interest to the Immortan, they were always allowed to keep everything to themselves. It’s how most of them got their personal possessions. Their pants and guns meant jack shit to them, but Slit had a personal fire lighter with a wicked skull on it and Nux had a flask with weird letters on it. When he had found it, one of the Imperators had taken a look at it and declared that it was useless to the Immortan, so Nux got to keep it. One of the War Boys from Scrotus’s crew had said explained to them that it came from a country called Russia. He had been able to tell by the letters engraved onto the flask, at least according to the words of that War Boy, which Slit didn’t believe of course. Could have been making shit up for all he knew. But Nux loved that flask and always filled it up with Aqua Cola whenever they went out. At least it had a practical use.

“We gotta go then,” Nux said as the boys stood up. “Have to go and work.” “Uh, yeah, go ahead and have  _fun_ ,” Toast said. “Nothin’ like stealing from poor people to keep your spirits alive and jolly.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Slit barked at her. “You heard what I said,” came her cool reply, but the snark was definitely there. Slit sneered at her. “Street girl like you wouldn’t know about this anyway. No way you’d understand.” He clapped Nux on the back and they stood next to the table now, towering over the two girls. “We’re keeping East Citadel shiny. We keep it running. Without us, you wouldn’t even be able to walk across the streets freely because Buzzards and Mountain Riders would kick you out of the city.”

Capable didn’t give a reply, but on the inside she was nauseous. Just some time ago, she had thought that maybe they weren’t so bad after all, but with Slit’s words still running through her mind she thought of herself as a stupid foolish girl. She had been way to idealistic.  
Toast on the other hand had her hands wrapped around her milkshake glass. Her knuckles were white in spite of her brown skin and her full lips were pressed into a thin line even though her lips were full and round when she smiled and talked. She was mad as hell. She wanted to take the stupid glass in her hands and hit Slit on the head with it for having said what he had said, but she didn’t. They were in a diner that she happened to like, no reason to start a messy fight and risk getting banned as a result. How embarrassing that’d be. To get banned from some small diner for starting a fight with to bald gorillas. She didn’t say anything and Slit thought he had won the fight.

“See, I told you. We’re right.”

“Hey, Capable! Will you give me a call if I give you my number again?” Nux asked the redhead. Capable cringed. She had told him earlier with fiery cheeks that she had thrown his number into the trash the other day because her ‘prejudice’, as she had called it, had prevented her from seeing him for who he was, and now she wished she hadn’t.

“Or you give me your number and I just call you when we get back to the Pits after our raid.”

“Uhm, sure.” She didn’t want to cause a scene right now and she figured the boys were eager to get out to join the other War Boys in their search for gold, but judging by the look Toast gave her, she was doing exact kind of stupid thing everyone had warned her about. Toast rolled her eyes as Capable gave Nux his phone back. The boy beamed at her, finally having her number and being able to contact her whenever he desired. He didn’t see her uneasiness through the pink glasses on his eyes.

“Come on, come on! We gotta go or they’ll go without us!” Slit called from near the door. “Yeah, what a shame that would be. Missing out on all that glory of stealing from others. Real fucking heroes,” Toast replied with arms crossed over her chest, but Slit only made a gruesome face at her and he and Nux disappeared as they left the diner.

Capable wanted to berate herself. Toast stared at the flimsy rest of her milkshake at the bottom of the glass. “So, that was your War Boy, huh.”

“He’s not mine.” “Oh come on, his eyes almost formed into big blue hearts when he stared at you. Not that it stopped him from going to that raid with that other idiot.”

“I know. I should have been more careful, I thought he was different, but…”

“It’s okay, Cape. Sometimes you can’t fix what’s broken. There’s a difference between damaged and broken, you know?”

Capable put her elbows onto the table and rested her chin on the palms of her hands. “And that would be?”

“When something is damaged, you can try to fix it. Repair it like a TV. But when it’s broken, something is irrevocably gone. No way for you to fix it.” Toast placed her hand on Capable’s forearm. “Maybe Nux is broken, not damaged.”

“Maybe. Guess Joe’s influence has poisoned him for years, like all the others. You remember when we first met Furiosa? And we weren’t sure if we could trust her?”

Toast nodded. She knew what Capable was referring to. “I said that Furiosa was Joe’s creature, just like all the Imperators and the War Boys.”

“Yes. And we were wrong about Furiosa, weren’t we?”

Thank the gods, they had been wrong about her. And if anyone could undo the damage done by Joe, it’d be Capable.

 --------------------------------------------

The raid turned out to be a huge success. Even in Slit’s biggest dreams he never thought he’d get to see something so wild. Nux had driven the pursuit vehicle and together they had worked together like a well-oiled machine. The raid had let them outside of East Citadel into the plains of silence. Each time Slit had used a lance, the ruby red flames coming from the tip had melted into the rusted colors of the ground. Sand had cut into his skin, but he hadn’t cared in the least. He had been euphoric. This had been the closest he’d ever come to true happiness, he figured, unless maybe he’d get hand-picked to be an Imperator one day.  
Joe hadn’t followed them into battle, which Slit understood. This had been just a raid after all, the Immortan would only follow them into war. Which, of course, Slit was waiting for every single day. The call for war would be the sweetest music to his ears. So shiny, so chrome.

Coma had played away on his guitar the entire time until they had killed off all the Buzzards that had dared challenging them and his guitar had been the rhythm in his heart and head, overriding his own pulse.  
Returning back home, Slit was high on euphoria. Nux had been excellent that day, driving him to every single damn spot that he had needed to be. The two of them had claimed new car parts for them from the Buzzards as well as a big chunk of money for each of them. They’d share the car parts, they wouldn’t share the money.

“Oh man, Slit, we’re rich!” Nux yelled as they made their way back to the Pits among all the other War Boys from their crew. Ace was driving in front of them, Slit and Nux right behind him.

“Damn right we are! Fucking historic!” Slit weighed the money in his hand. The heavy weight felt just right to him.

“Man, we shredded them, Slit! Just shredded them,” he said while grasping the steering wheel harder, his big eyes bright with joy.

“Just like we’re supposed to. Fuck, we’re right, Nux. No matter what those girls are saying,” Slit retorted.

“Oh, right, Capable! I should call her. Can take her out for a date now that I have some money.”

“You want to waste your money on some street girl? You’d do better by giving me your money, Nux. I wouldn’t waste it at least.” Nux shoved Slit with his foot and both of them grunted with laughter. They hadn’t been this happy in months, or at least that’s what it felt like for Slit.  
Nux took out his phone and fumbled with the screen until he had Capable’s phone number. He pressed the green ‘call’ button and held the phone to his ear. Slit huffed, but didn’t say anything; he just stared out of the window to his right side.

“Hello?” A female voice come from the phone and Nux grinned like an idiot.

“Hey, here’s Nux.” A rustling sound came from the other side of the line, as if she were putting some scattered papers together.  _Was she working?_ , Nux wondered.  _This late?_

“Ah, yeah, let me get to my room.” She grew silent and Nux could hear her breathing as she probably made her way through the house she lived in. He thought about where she might live; considering that she had multiple sisters, it should be a bigger house. Unless they all shared a single room?

The sound of a door getting closed came from her line.

“So, you’re back from your raid?”

“Yeah, we’ve come back. And Capable, you wouldn’t believe everything we got. You should have seen us, it was glorious.”

Capable remembered the kind of luxurious life Joe had led and the kind of lifestyle he had forced upon her and her sisters. She knew that Nux couldn’t know that the money he had was a joke compared to what Joe had. But telling him this wouldn’t make a difference, would it?

“So you stole money?” Capable whispered. “Nux… stealing is not good.”

“Ah, come on, Capable! We didn’t steal it, we fought for it. We went all out and hunted them down. It’s the way the Immortan does it, it’s the way we do it and keep East Citadel running.”

Capable’s throat became tight and she fought with her own tears. She didn’t want to let him know that she was crying so she swat the tears off her face before she could start sobbing entirely. Indeed, this was the way of the Immortan.

“Do you not work a normal job? As War Boys I mean. You don’t go on raids every single day, do you?” Not that Capable wanted to know per se, she simply wanted him to talk. She felt like getting strangled by memories of Joe and the night they fled from him. The five of them and Furiosa. How Max had joined their fight, how he had fought for them and how they had to flee from Joe until they found a safe place to stay.  
The Vulvalini had established a base in the house they stayed in and the five girls had gladly moved in.

So while she was wrestling with her own emotions, it was easier for her to listen.

“I am a mechanic, a blackthumb. I repair all the cars and vehicles. That’s how I make most of my money. Raids like today’s though, they bring the real cash to us.”

“You War Boys not getting a lot besides that?”

“No. At least not what an average job could get us. But Capable, that’s not what this is about – it’s just working for Joe itself. We are who we are  _because_  of him. Everything we have we have because of him. East Citadel is as shine as it is because of him. We all owe him. Being a War Boy is so much more than just occasional raids.”

Capable didn’t know what to say. She should have expected his religious devotion, but it still made her sick. Could she ever make him see just how much Joe used him as everyone else? That Joe was nothing but a lying old man? That he was human, no matter how much Joe wanted to erase his humanity for the sake of blind faith.

“Capable? Are you still there?” She couldn’t say anything, his voice sounded so sincere and sweet.

_Capable, Capable are you there?_

“Yeah, I’m still here. I’m just tired, my day has been really long,” she finally answered.

“Oh shit, am I keeping you up? I’m sorry, Capable.” “Don’t worry. But aren’t you tired? You went out into the desert and you fought with other people, you must be tired.”

“Couldn’t be tired talking to you like this.” And even without being able to look at Nux’s face, she could imagine his face and how his eyes would brighten up as he’d say this. She just wished he could let go of his idolization of Joe. For his own sake, she prayed, one day he would.  
“Where are you now, Nux? Have you returned to your home?” She didn’t want to mention the Pits because he could question how she knew about the Pits if he’d get suspicious.

“I’m at the Pits if that’s what you’d call home.”

“What is it like there? Do you have a room of your own?”

“Nah, I’m sharing it with a few others. All War Boys within the same crew do that. Saves space and it’s less cold in the winter.”

Capable chuckled. “I’m trying to imagine you and that other War Boy from earlier cuddled up with a few blankets. Somehow he didn’t give me the impression being of the cuddly kind.”

“Ah, you mean Slit?” Nux questioned. Capable affirmed that. “He hasn’t returned yet. He went out with some other boys after the raid.”  
“And you didn’t join the celebrations?” Capable found that hard to believe. Why would he skip something like this? “Nah, I didn’t.” “Why?”

“Had someone more important to talk to tonight.”

Capable’s cheeks turned pink despite her mixed feelings of him.

 --------------------------------------------

Toast and Capable had gone home right after the incident at the diner as per Toast’s request. She had wanted to tell Furiosa right away and Capable hadn’t protested. On their way back, neither of them had been very talkative and Capable had left Furiosa and Toast to their conversation as soon as possible to daydream about Nux.

“Just the same War Boys that had met Capable before?” Furiosa asked leaning over the kitchen counter with an apple in her hand.

“Precisely those. All dolled up in their leather jackets and war paint. Of course they recognized Capable immediately and I guess that means they’ll recognize me too.”

Toast rubbed her temples and sighed. This had become way too complicated in way too little time. Hadn’t they all agreed to avoid War Boys just a few days ago? All five of them? And why did the scarred face of Nux’s partner keep up popping up in her head?  
Toast knew what she would do later that night.

“I think I’ll be able to handle them though,” Toast said with her eyes on Furiosa.

“Nux doesn’t seem to be the kind to make any trouble except maybe out of his own stupidity. And his friend seemed to be the kind with a big mouth and very little brain.”

“Don’t underestimate them, Toast. Those War Boys may not be Joe’s brain, but they are his ears and eyes,” Furiosa replied with a serious face. She hadn’t worn the grease on her forehead for months, but Toast sometimes caught her raising her fingers and swiping at her forehead as if the grease was still there.  
“If you want to have a gun for personal safety, you know you can talk to Seeds or Val about it. None of them would judge you considering how they’re armed from head to toe.”

Toast nodded, but knew she couldn’t do this. She and the four others had a very simple rule: to be better and less violent than Joe. And to achieve that they had to avoid violence if they could. Not carrying guns was one way to achieve that. Besides, if you had a gun on you, said gun could get ripped out of your hands and turned on you within a second.

And considering she was neither very tall nor physically very strong, that scenario was likely to happen.

So no carrying guns for her.

After her conversation with Furiosa, Toast had gone outside again. She hadn’t been in the mood to face the other girls, to look at Capable with her cheeks still flushed from Nux’s attention or Dag with her all-knowing eyes.  
So she went out alone, wandering the streets of East Citadel. Toast wasn’t worried about anybody attacking her because she had put on a bulky sweater and a beanie so she ended up looking like a boy with her short hair. A small boy maybe.

So she ended up taking the turn into Main Street and then Cobalt Lane, way past Higgin’s Drive. She didn’t want to walk through empty lanes and alleys, but she didn’t want to end up in a place where someone may recognize her either.

She was contemplating all her options like a scale. Then she saw the neon sign of a big bar. ‘Il Rosso’, it said in flickering letters above her head. She had never gone into a bar even though she was 23. Joe had never allowed them to drink either, too afraid of them ruining their bodies with that ‘poison’. That made it even better for her. The more fuck-yous she could give him in her head, the better she felt.  
So she pushed the door open and entered the room. Loud music from singers she didn’t recognize blasted through the air and a waitress greeted her with a silent nod. She didn’t speak, not that Toast thought it would have made a difference. The music was too loud for her to hear anything else unless someone would lean into her ear. In which case she probably didn’t want to hear what that person had to say anyway.

She sat on a stool at the bar. There was a drunk guy next to her, but seemed unconscious. Perfect, Toast mused, perfect for her to start drinking for the first time. She checked her wallet and was pleased to see that she had well enough money to waste. She always saved money even though she never knew what for. Now she did.  
From the corner of her eyes, dark figures entered the bar just like she had just moments prior.

War Boys.

_Of fucking course_. Just what she needed. They clapped each other on the backs, their laughter barely carrying over the bass, their skin looked sick in the purple light. Not that they would care. They settled at the tables far off in some corner, just like Toast had hoped they would. Her first drink arrived, she took a sip and saw a lanky figure getting up from their table.  
She turned her head and recognized the boy; Slit had been the name, right?

He hadn’t changed since the last time she saw him, of course, but there was a carefree grin on his face like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving had all fallen onto one single day.

He sauntered over to the bar and she kept her eyes on him to get a good look. She had to admit that, while the light made his skin look sick, and while his face was distorted by the scars running over his skin, he was handsome.  
Tall, muscular and hard features. She couldn’t deny he was handsome, despite of it all. Despite being a War Boy.

She took a long sip from her drink as Slit looked at her. There was no sign of confusion in his eyes, so he recognized her, but she didn’t think he would come over like that. But he did. Toast was still drinking when he leaned over the counter with a grin and nodded at her drink. The music was still roaring inside the bar so he leaned into her to make her hear him speak.

“What are you doing here? This is dangerously close to War Boy territory. Thought you were smarter than this.”

“I just wanted to go out. Have a drink.” She held up the glass as proof.

“By yourself?”

“By myself.”

“Then you should know that the place is crawling with Boys. We had a chrome day and almost everyone has gone out for drinks.” Besides Nux, that was. That mediocre fucker had stayed behind to talk to the redhead, how fucking stupid was that?

“Do you think I am afraid of you, War Boy?” Toast replied. Slit glanced at her drink; judging by it and the lack of other glasses around her, it was her first drink tonight so she couldn’t be drunk already.

“If you were smart you would be.” Toast replied with a snort. Slit’s face fell into a frown.

“I’m not going to lock myself up just because I don’t like War Boys. I have a right to live here and go out and enjoy drinks if I damn well fucking please so,” Toast said into his ear and then took another sip of her drink. Empty already. She gave the bartender a sign to give her another drink.

“Do you even know what you’re drinking?” Slit asked her.

“No, but I guess I’ll find out.”

Slit didn’t have to look at the menu or anything else to know what was good. He waved the bartender towards himself and half-yelled, “Two Apricot Brandies, no ice.” Slit may have never eaten apricots before in his life, but he did know what apricot liquor tasted like. Softer than the average Brandy and therefore better for someone who didn’t know jack shit about alcohol.  
When the bartender placed the drinks in front of them, she eyed it with suspicion, but took a sip of it nonetheless. She seemed pleasantly surprised.

“Not bad, War Boy. Didn’t know boys like you knew anything but how to be assholes?” She gave back.

“Hey, I know tons of shit. I have survived on the streets long before I became a War Boy.” He took a long drag of his own drink and fixed her with his dark eyes. Maybe it was the alcohol kicking in, but she thought his eyes were handsome too. Stupid War Boy.

“And what does someone called Slit know? How to steal from orphans?” She laughed at her own remark. “I don’t steal from orphans. Or the wretched. Can’t be caught stealing from these people, can’t be caught sinking that low.”

“Ah,” she gave back. “Then why are you hanging with me instead of your pals? Shouldn’t you be celebrating with them instead of talking with me?” Slit didn’t turn his head, but he knew the other guys were watching him. Maybe not all the time, but just to make sure he wouldn’t do anything stupid.  
Slit took his time to answer her. He had seen her the moment they had entered the bar. He had recognized her short hair and her brown skin. Someone so small was easier to recognize. Then he had kept his eyes on her the entire time. She had been worth watching. Toast had to have guts if she came out here like that all by herself. There was no one around her, a clear sign she didn’t ask for protection if she didn’t have to. A sign that she had the balls to enter War Boy territory just by herself. Impressive indeed. Slit could respect that. She was just as remarkably brave as when he had met her for the first time. If she were a boy, he’d suggest her to join the War Boys.

She’d be shine as fuck.

Fuck that, she _was_ shine as fuck.

Toast finished her drink and stared at him because she was still expecting a response.

“If I wouldn’t hang with you and something would happen to you, I’m sure you’d tell your sister. Your sister would tell Nux. And Nux has the astounding talent of nagging for days without a stop if he wants to.”

“Ah, so you’re just here because you want to do yourself a favor?” She snickered. “And I thought I was bad at coming up with excuses.”

“Not an excuse!” Maybe a partial excuse. Toast lowered her eyes at him and ordered another drink. Another apricot brandy. Slit puffed up his chest.

“So there’s no way you came over because you wanted to continue talking to me after we met at the diner?” she asked. Her cheeks were flushed, probably from the alcohol, but it didn’t make her look any less shine as she had looked back in that shitty diner.  
“I’ll admit I thought you were shine,” he replied, “You’ve got proper War Boy guts. If you were a guy, I’d make you one of us.” She stared at him from beneath her eyelashes and grinned, as if she knew a joke he didn’t understand.

Toast raised her glass and tipped it against his. “To us then,” she told him. She still had that small grin on her lips. Slit still didn’t understand whatever kind of joke she had told.

They ended up drinking a few more shots before Slit went back to the other boys in the bar since he couldn’t risk the other War Boys getting suspicious of him for talking to her; it’d be a risk to both of them. Up to that point Toast had grown quiet there had been no point of continuing to talk to her, right up until the moment she tried to get up from her seat. He watched her from his own seat, saw her wobbling towards the door. She was obviously drunk; she couldn’t even walk straight anymore.  
Slit cursed. It was one thing to go into War Boy territory for drinks, it was another to run around completely messed up in the middle of the night. He bid his farewell to the others and caught up to her with big striding steps, then slid out of the door right behind her to catch her before she could fall down the flight of stairs that led onto the pavement outside.

“Are you stupid?” he barked at her. “Going out like this? Get a cab. Get one of your sisters to drive you home or some shit.” Toast’s feet gave in and she sunk down. Slit caught her with his arms easily and slung one around her to keep her upright.

She had passed out. Great. He dedicated his whole life to his redeemer the Immortan Joe and this is the thanks he got? Just fucking great.

Slit cursed so badly, an elderly woman next to him looked at him in unpleasant surprise. As if she should’ve expected proper manners from a War Boy! He snarled at her to get lost; his face did the rest his voice couldn’t do and the woman hurried away.  
Toast was still passed out in his arms. What a mess. First thing, he had to get them away from this place. It was crawling with War Boys so there were curious eyes everywhere. He didn’t want to end this perfect day by getting his reputation torn into shreds because he was holding this street girl in his arms. He wasn’t mediocre. So he lifted her enough to get her away and into an alley, then he put her onto a bench there to be able to think properly without her touching him.  
Slit scratched his chin. She was small, that much he had known before, he hadn’t known though how soft she was. Such a contrast to her usual snark and behavior. Normally, War Boys hated anything soft, but Toast had felt different. Her softness hadn’t been appalling to him.  
He had to get her away from this place, as quickly as possible. Couldn’t leave her on this bench either. There was a motel not far away from the bar district that the War Boys stayed in if there was trouble in the Pits. He could take her there, rent a room for one night for her and then leave. She’d be able to handle herself once she woke up. He could get back to the Pits and no one would know about him and Toast’s issue. Perfect.

He knew he should be bringing her home but he didn’t know where she lived. He was sure she hadn’t written it into her personal belongings either. Plus, he wasn’t going to go through her stuff, not while she was unconscious like that. It wouldn’t be right.

So, the Balcony motel it’d be. Not too far away, Slit figured, he could carry her there without a problem. He lifted her over his back again and started to make his way through dark alleys. He couldn’t use the main streets if he wanted to stay undiscovered, though it did make him feel uneasy to be walking with some girl hanging over his shoulder like this.  
Anyone seeing him would see some asshole hauling some drunk and passed out girl into a dark alley. The police would be joyous to arrest him and he doubted Toast would save him from them, if she would be able to remember anything in the first place.

Shit, he was in such much trouble if he got caught. And Toast wouldn’t even remember, fantastic.

All the way to the motel, Slit kept cursing whenever he saw someone or at least _thought_ he saw someone like a ‘soft sissy or some shit’ as he kept calling himself.

The old man at the reception didn’t ask any questions when Slit showed up with an unconscious girl over his shoulder. He had seen too many War Boys coming through with all kinds of shit. He had learned it was better not to ask questions so Slit didn’t even have to give a name to get a room. Just some cash. Exactly the kind of privacy he wanted and would allow him to stay under the radar.

The room was shit. Of course. Cheap, but shit. The curtains were a muddy yellow and he didn’t even want to know what kind of stains were on the mattress. The floor probably used to be a light beige at some point, but now it was a worn-out gray. There was mold in the corners of the ceiling.  
Slit put Toast on the bed and then checked out the bathroom. Just as filthy as the bedroom. Not that he wanted to take a shower in this place, but he couldn’t see any cameras either. Toast stirred as he came back into the bedroom.

“Hey, Toast!” he said while walking over to her. “Come on, wake up! Wake the fuck up!” He grabbed her shoulder and shook her. She opened her eyes. “Finally. Been passed out for almost an hour by now.” “Hm…,” she murmured and then turned onto her side. Slit could see sweat on her forehead and her skin had turned into a sickly yellow color. He knew what was going to happen. She’d had way too much to drink. He took the small plastic bin and placed it next to Toast’s head on the floor.

She turned over and threw up. Slit got onto his feet and wandered around the room. This was too much for him, but he couldn’t just leave her like this. He could at least wait till she got better. If he’d leave her and she’d choke on her own vomit, she could die; he had seen it before. Not a nice way to leave the world.  
Slit waited till she stopped and then took the bin and emptied it into the toilet before rinsing it. Praise the Immortan, this shithole actually had running water. Otherwise Slit might have thrown up too.  
When he returned to the bedroom, he saw that Toast had turned over on the other side. A sign that she felt better. So he sat down on the ground with his back to the wall, eyes on her. Her skin looked better, but her forehead was still sweaty, but there were no washing clothes in this place.

Slit kept sitting there in state of being awake and half-asleep, making sure that Toast didn’t throw up again. It was in the early hours of the morning, at 4:18 AM that she fully woke up. It took her a good few minutes to realize that she was neither at home, nor at any other place that she knew. Her head was spinning and sitting up didn’t make her feel any better, but she still straightened her spine. Her vision started to spin and she grabbed her forehead. She felt nauseous, but stable enough not to vomit.  
She turned her head to the left and saw Slit.

Slit? What the fuck was she doing with Slit in this place? Toast began panicking and her eyes darted through the room to look for anything familiar. A horrible thought came to her mind and her hands went down on her own body. No, she was still wearing all her clothes, even her beanie. She moved her legs off the bed and stood up, no matter how much her head was screaming.  
She couldn’t feel any bruising between her legs or anywhere else. Toast had come to know exactly what those bruises felt like when she had been with Joe. She and all her sisters had.

Her sisters! They must be worried sick! What had she done? What had Slit done to her? Without waking him she went around the bed and took out her phone from her sweater. 19 unread messages. Her stomach dropped low.

 

_Hey Toast, where are you?_

_Toast?_

_Toast, answer us!!_

_Please?_

_What happened????_

_Toast, if you’re not coming home I’ll have to roam the streets_

 

The list went on. Toast cursed herself and dialed Furiosa’s number. She picked up within seconds, so she had been waiting for Toast to call. Every passing second made Toast feel shittier.

“Toast?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, “it’s me. I want to apologize for not answering any texts.”

“Do you have a faint idea how worried everybody was? Where the hell are you?”

“I went out for drinks last night, I got too drunk and because I couldn’t find a cab, I decided to stay in a shitty motel for a night.”

“Toast, the Vulvalini have been roaming the streets for hours by now. That was careless, that was stupid.”

“I know, I am so sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Of all the girls, I never thought you’d be the one to do something so careless.” She heard Furiosa take a sharp breath. After promising to her that she’d come home by sunrise, the call ended with her having a bitter feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with alcohol.

Toast squeezed her eyes shut. Disappointing Furiosa of all the people she was close to felt like the worst. Her sisters would forgive her, but Furiosa would be disappointed for a while. _Damn_.

She took a look at Slit. He was asleep and judging by the dark circles beneath his eyes he had been up all night. She had made sure that he hadn’t touched her because she’d know if he had and she would make him choke on his own blood if that would have happened. But no, he hadn’t touched her.  
The only explanation left for this scenario was that he had carried her all the way to this motel, had made sure she was in a bed in a safe place and then had sat down next to the bed like some overgrown human guard dog.  
Shit, she owed him now, didn’t she? Owing a War Boy, what a mess. What a _fucking_ mess.

“Oi, Slit! Wake up!” Toast yelled while kicking his leg. She barely moved it before his eyes snapped open and he jumped up, ready to ambush anyone who was in the room.

“Whoa, calm down there, big boy. It’s just me.”

He stared at her without recognizing her. Then his eyes really focused on the person in front of him and he relaxed. “Almost made me attack you! Shouldn’t wake me like that. Thought you were smarter than this.”

“Thought I should wake you.” He stared at her in silence, not really knowing what to say.

“So you brought me over here? From that pub?” she asked him. “Yeah. I did that.”

“Why? You could have just put me into a cab.”

“Didn’t know what your address is. And you were out of it, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the cab driver anyway.”

“So you just…what? Carried me over to this stinky place?” Slit nodded.

“Why?” Toast inquired. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. He must have had a motive for all this. No War Boy ever would do such a thing for some ‘lowly street girl’. War Boys weren’t known for the altruism.

“Should I have let you sleep on the street?” he barked. Slit didn’t enjoy being questioned. He didn’t even know the answer himself. She had been alone, she had been unconscious and letting her run into an open knife just hadn’t seemed right. What else could he tell her?  
Toast looked on the ground; of course she wouldn’t have liked getting left behind on the ground like that. The night would have ended worse than sleeping in a dirty motel room. Maybe Slit wasn’t the worst one out there. He had had all the opportunities to use her, to hurt her and he hadn’t. She had to acknowledge that.

“See. So I took you here. Even cleaned up your puke.”

“My what?!” Toast said. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Slit. I am. Cleaning up my puke…you didn’t have to do that. That was very kind of you.” He mumbled something and looked away, his cheeks darkening. Accepting soft praise wasn’t one of his strengths at all. Wasn’t used to it.

“If I wouldn’t have done it, who would have? You were out of it.” He still wasn’t looking at her.  
Toast felt oddly ashamed of herself; not because of the puke. She had been there and done that, but because he had been _kind_ to her. She had the lowest of all opinions of him because he was a War Boy and he had been kind to her nonetheless. Of course, he couldn’t know why she had that opinion of him, nor could he know how much she had loathed him when she had met him, but she was sure he knew on some level. He knew she hadn’t liked him and he had still helped her.  
He definitely wasn’t the worst one out there. Slit was not Joe, he was better than him.

“Well, thank you then. For helping me.” _And protecting me_ , Toast added, _even though you didn’t have to_. But she couldn’t go soft with him.

She made her way to the bathroom and splashed some water into her face. It cooled her face down and lessened the burning of her cheeks. She rinsed her mouth but couldn’t get rid of her nasty breath; there was no toothpaste. This really was a shithole motel. That reminded her he had paid for this room. Had to.

Perfect. Not only did she owe him in kindness, she also owed him money. At least he hadn’t paid for her drinks last night. She remembered slamming some bills on the counter. Toast took a look into her wallet and saw that he didn’t even try to steal her money. She still had the rest of her money left.  
She figured she could start by giving him his money back.

“Here,” she called out while coming back into the living room. He was sitting on the bed, but not sleeping. He had been waiting for her. She stood in front of him and held out the money. “Figured I can at least give you the money back that you spent on this dirty room for me.” Slit looked at her hand and then back at her.

“I’m not going to accept money from you.”

“Why not?” Toast asked, feeling a bit offended. “I owe you. Let me pay my debts.”

“Not gonna accept money from anyone. We claim what’s ours. Keep the money.”

She pursed her lips, but didn’t say anything. She had another idea how she could pay him back with money. “Have you eaten anything since last night?” she asked him while walking to the door. “Nah,” he replied. He followed her outside. Now that Toast was sober again East Citadel wasn’t much of a danger for her with him around. Plus all the War Boys would have gone back to the Pits by now. It was almost five AM.

“Are none of your sisters worried?” he asked her. “No, not anymore. Told them I had paid for the motel room myself. Didn’t mention you so they think I’m alone.”

“Not very smart to let them think you’re alone when you’re with someone else.”

“You had plenty of opportunities to hurt me and you didn’t. Don’t think you’ll start now, will ya?” She grinned at him and gave a small smile back. No, he wasn’t going to hurt her.  
“I’m starving. Let’s go to a seven-eleven and get something to eat.”

They walked down to Main Street for a while in silence. His boots were heavy and the soles thick but he barely made a sound. She, in her dark clothes and sneakers, made equally little sound and they were almost invisible in the night. Only a small stripe of bright pink was to be seen in the far east of the city, escaping between the buildings whenever there was enough space.  
The seven-eleven they found was bigger than the one around the corner of Toast’s home and she took in the entire range of products she didn’t know. Slit didn’t hover near her, but instead just took out a pack of cigarettes and a can of coke. Toast looked through the newspapers and found one she wanted to buy; then she went to the food aisle. There were boxes of salad, bags of potato chips, but she wanted a sandwich. She took out three packages with two sandwiches each – one with egg and mayo, one with tuna and mayo and one with bacon, cheese and eggs. He would have to like at least one of these options. She would just eat whatever he didn’t want.  
At the register she picked out a package of chewing gum and a bottle of water as well and paid for everything. Slit was already outside and smoking one of his cigarettes.

“Thought you might want something to eat,” Toast said walking up to him. “Pick whichever you want.” Slit stared at her and puffed out the smoke in his lungs. “This isn’t money. You’re not accepting money from me. Just food.” That convinced him. Slit took the sandwich with bacon, eggs and cheese from her and ripped it open.

“Thanks,” he murmured before taking a bite. Toast didn’t say anything; she remembered his reaction earlier when she had thanked him for helping her and she made her own conclusions from this. He clearly was uncomfortable with compliments or spoken kindness. Probably typical War Boy behavior. Only yelling shit at each other like savages.  
That moment she understood why Capable had been so sympathetic towards Nux. She could see the young man beneath all the War Paint and the leather.

Toast ate the sandwich with egg and mayo and gave the tuna sandwich to Slit. He ate that one as well and then finished his can of coke. Toast sipped at her water. Her nausea was gone by now and the sandwich and water helped her feel better and less hangover. Maybe they’d have some painkillers at home she could take. She also tried one of those chewing gums she had bought, peppermint taste. It finally made the sour taste in her mouth go away.

They strode away from the seven-eleven and took a stroll through the nearby park. It was tiny and clearly no one took care of it, but the trees growing in it still made Toast feel at ease. There were empty cans of soda on the ground, syringes and cigarette butts everywhere. The park was surrounded by empty houses on each side. _Not a good place to live_ , Toast figured, _this being in the War Boy territory_.  
Toast and Slit passed time in silence. Toast because she was busy taking a look at the houses, Slit because he was still smoking. He followed her around a few steps behind her, not crowding her.  
Made her feel guilty again.

“Who do you think used to live in these houses?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“Do the War Boys own these?” she asked, looking at him from beneath her dark beanie. There were no signs on the door bells. Toast pressed a button, but there was no sound. So the bells didn’t work either.  
“It’s the Wasteland. Our territory. Of course we own them.”

“Then why aren’t you living in them? Or at least doing something with them?” What a waste. These houses could be good if you cleaned them and gave them proper windows.

“We live in the Pits. They’re more than enough. Don’t need these.”

“Then why are you letting these houses rot?” But Slit didn’t have an answer, just shrugged. These decision were to be made by Joe, obviously not some War Boy. “Well, have you ever taken a look inside?”

“Yeah, we always scavenge everything when we claim something. Most shit is useless though. Maybe some furniture or some jewelry. But nothing good. Nothing the War Boys would need.” Toast nodded and got onto her tiptoes to take a look into the broken window. The room was empty and the dusty window didn’t make her view any better. She got down again when the phone in her sweater vibrated. A text message from Dag.

_Furiosa said you’d come home by sunrise, where r u? pls come home, we aren’t angry either, just worried. If u dont come home the Vulvalini will have to come out again_

Toast checked her phone and Dag was right. It was almost 6 AM. Time to go home, Toast figured.  
She turned to Slit who was leaning next to her against the house’s wall.

“You got problems at home?” he asked.

“My sisters want me to come back. My mother is worried, too.”

“You should go then,” he replied. “Yeah, I really have to. Thanks again for…everything you’ve done. You didn’t have to and still did.” Slit’s cheeks still turned dark in the dim light of dawn.  
“How are you going to get home? Can walk you there if - ,” Slit tried to offer, but Toast intervened. “Don’t worry, I’ll get a cab.”

The way he looked at her, as if he was honestly disappointed she refused him like that. Made something in her chest tingle and Toast couldn’t help herself. She got onto her tiptoes one last time and placed a quick kiss onto the corner of his mouth, not even a real kiss if she thought about it. He had been more than helpful than necessary and Toast had already admitted to herself that he was handsome. A small kiss wouldn’t hurt. Slit had earned it.  
He barely had time to react to the kiss before it was over. He tried to lean in, but she already pulled away. They looked at each other, both contemplating leaning in for a second kiss. But Toast knew she had to leave before she got into it too deep. She turned on her heels and took long strides away from the house.

“Guess I’ll see you around,” she yelled while making her way to the end of the park and towards the Main Street. Slit couldn’t say anything so he just huffed. There was, however, a sly grin on his face. It stayed there all the way back to the Pits.

Toast got into a cab a few yards down the street and texted Dag that she was on her way. Her lips were still tingling from the memory Slit’s lips had left on hers. The kiss had been soft, so soft considering who she had kissed, but it had been pleasant and she had wanted to lean in to feel more of him.

But she had already reached her maximum capacity for stupidity today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is called 'Charger' by Gorillaz.
> 
> I was drunk for the most part while writing this chapter.
> 
> "So she ended up taking the turn into Main Street and then Cobalt Lane, way past Higgin’s Drive." - A reference to Marvel's Jessica Jones. The pub's name 'Il Rosso' is also a reference to that show!
> 
> Also, I found the phone number of Chris Patton (the actor who played Morsov in MMFR) online. I haven't been the same since.


	8. The Metamorphosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toast fucks Slit up and he goes down the slippery lane of mental ill. Nux and Capable kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Self-harm is described and therefore if it triggers you, please be warned.

By the time the cab reached the Green Place, the skin around Toast’s nails was red and bloody. She chewed on them the entire ride, too riled up to talk with the driver in the front of the car, who kept looking at her like she’d do something insane any second now.  
This was probably how her sisters would look at her from now on and that was if she didn’t tell them about the kiss. There was no way she could tell them about the kiss, not even Capable. She might find herself fancying that War Boy called Nux, but Toast was sure Capable hadn’t kissed him yet. She wasn’t even sure if her sister thought about that yet either. At least Toast could maintain that Slit hadn’t kissed her back. Sure, it had been because she had pulled away before that could have happened at all, but at least it hadn’t happened. He had been too big, too kind and too soft for his size for Toast to remain neutral.  
If he had been able to kiss her back, she surely would have responded; she couldn’t let that happen, not even for a short while. He was a War Boy and she was far too busy living to waste it on some guy she ran into a few times.

Still. _Still_. Back when she and her sisters had been prisoners of Joe, Toast had spent a big chunk of her free time reading books. The topics had never mattered to her all that much; she had read poetry the same way she had read science text books. The only thing that had mattered to her had been that she learned something, anything, from those books. Toast remembers not many of the romance novels because they rarely taught her anything, but she could recall a certain word like it was painted in big red letters in her head.  
Pyrocant. A noun describing a weakness of a single individual, may it be internally like an addiction or externally like a lover. Not that Slit was her lover, but Toast didn’t like her own reaction to him. It had been way too strong considering who he was and how little she knew him. She hadn’t liked his reaction to her either. For someone so rough he sure had treated her with softness, even blushing when she had thanked him sincerely.  
If she were the Dag or maybe Capable, she could try to interpret more into Slit’s behavior than there really was. She could say that Slit had taken care of her because he found a liking of her. Maybe she’d say that, because she had guts ‘like a War Boy’ as he’d called it, he had started to take a liking towards her. Maybe Toast would say that he just happened to like her and that would be it.

But Toast didn’t know what she was feeling about Slit and on top of that he had been kinder to her than she had had expected and now she owed him. She’d have to be careful about him in the future. She didn’t think he’d try to contact her to call in a favor, but you never knew. Maybe she would run into him again, East Citadel wasn’t gigantic after all. And she still lived near the Wasteland. Toast would never be able to completely avoid him or the other War Boys.

It was almost seven AM when the cab turned into her home street. The familiar sight managed to clear her head enough to confront Furiosa who was sitting outside their house on the steps with a gun attached to her hip. Ready to shoot anyone should the occasion arise. Toast got out of the car, gave the driver the money he complained for and then faced the woman sitting there. The guilt from before came crashing back.

“Before you get angry, I want to apologize. I should have at least called to let you know where I was. I realize you all must have been crazy worried about me, considering our past and everything else. I will not do such a thing again. I am so sorry.” Toast looked onto the ground because Furiosa’s stare was simply too much for her. It’d take a while before Toast would stop feeling awful about this incident. Furiosa didn’t say anything and put her hands on her hips. Then she lowered her gaze too and made a gesture for Toast to follow her inside. So Toast on Trial was over apparently.  
Inside her four sisters were already sitting at the living room table with steaming bowls of oat meal in front of them. They looked concerned, but not angry; just like Toast had predicted. Cheedo stared at her with the awe of a child that saw her elder sister break the parents’ rules for the first time. It just so happened that Toast was the obedient child. Back during the days of being Joe’s slaves Toast had admired Furiosa. She had admired her strength and determination. Of the five girls only Toast knew how to use a gun and it had been Furiosa to teach her. Angharad had been angry back when Toast had used a gun for the first time, so had been Capable and the Dag. Cheedo had been scared.

“Hey.” Toast let herself fall into the only empty chair at the table next to Dag. Seeds was leaning against the door frame with a small smirk on her lips, her face having a rather smug expression. “Hey,” came the identical reply from her sisters.

“If I didn’t know it any better,” Seeds began, “I’d say that Toast had quite the night. You done anything interesting, girlie?” Toast knew that the old woman meant no harm and was only trying to lighten up the dark mood in the room, yet the question still worried her. She couldn’t know about anything, could she? Slit had made sure to stay hidden during the night, hadn’t he? If the Vulvalini had seen some War Boy hauling Toast over his shoulder in some dark alley, he sure would have ended up with a bullet in the head, probably fired by Seeds or Valkyrie. So they didn’t know anything.

“No, nothing interesting.” When nobody interrupted the silence that followed, Toast continued. “I just went to a bar, had a few drinks, noticed that I was too drunk to come home by myself and instead went to a nearby motel. I slept there and that was that. Then I went to a seven-eleven and got myself a bottle of water and got into a cab to come back home. That’s all that happened.” Seeds grinned at Toast and clapped her onto her shoulder. “You go out once in blue moon and even then you don’t do anything remotely fun. If you get drunk, you gotta start a bar fight!” Her cackling made Toast pull her lips up into a smile.

Breakfast became easier from then on. Once everyone had satisfied their curiosity with Toast’s adventure, everyone went about their own thoughts and conversations. Cheedo talked about her last shift at the Red Hut. A few college guys had come in and had hit on Cheedo. That had caused her to spill some coffee out of embarrassment and Ms. Jenkins had reminded the boys that if they only came to the Red Hut to hit on her staff, they should just leave. Cheedo said it was a good thing the Red Hut was a place only elderly and hipsters frequently went to.  
Angharad had been to the doctor the evening before and showed everyone the new photos of her baby. A healthy boy as far as the doctors could tell. Toast was worried how Angharad dealt with her baby being a boy after she had suffered so much at the hands of a man, but Angharad was happy. “If anything, this shows me that our escape was the right thing to do. Now he’ll be a free child, growing up around people who love and not use him. If we had stayed he would have become a warlord like his father; we prevented that from happening.” So Toast didn’t have to worry. The only sister that was different from her usual self was Capable. She stirred her oatmeal in the bowl and didn’t add anything to the on-going conversations.  
“You alright, Cape?” Toast asked her. Her sister looked up and put a smile on her face, but Toast could still see the worry in her eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. I talked to Nux last night. On the phone.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Nux is far into the deep end. I mean, he _really_ worships Joe. He thinks we all owe him because it’s him who keeps East Citadel running.” Toast huffed. “Guess he never saw all those poor homeless people close to starvation out on the streets then,” she gave back coolly. Capable nodded. “Don’t think he really understands what is wrong with this system yet. Toast, I like him, I do. But what if I can’t help him see the truth?”

Toast stared at her hands. “Cape, it’s not your job to fix him. He’s not a social project. But maybe he hasn’t seen the real system yet. He only sees what Joe wants him to see. Maybe he needs someone to show him the truth. If you think you can do that, I’d give it a try.” This was as much positivity Toast could muster during such an early and shitty morning.

“He’s Joe’s creature, just like we were. He owns him just like he used to own us,” Capable whispered and Toast nodded. But she didn’t tell her sister what she was secretly thinking: that a few acts of kindness, regardless of how honest they were, could ever erase a lifetime of brain washing.

After breakfast the girls went upstairs to get ready for the day. Angharad was relaxing on the couch and braiding Capable’s hair while Cheedo got ready for a shift at the Red Hut. The Dag wore her hair lose that day, just one braid on the side of her head. Her tattooed fingers put earrings through the holes in her ears. She had gotten them pierced almost as soon as they had been free from Joe. Dag thought that by decorating her body in ways that she wanted it to, she was reclaiming it for herself once more. Getting rid of Joe over and over again.  
Toast had thought about doing something similar for a while, but she had yet to find a tattoo shop that practiced the kind of neo-traditional style that she would like to see on her skin.

“You know, I wonder if you’ll take us with you the next time you go out to have fun, Toast,” Dag said with a sly smile. “I’d like to see you drunk, maybe you’d be less serious.” Toast pursed her lips, not being able to hide a snort.

“I am not going to go out like that again. It was a one-time kind of stupidity.”

* * *

 Would Nux ever shut up? Probably not. Slit’s temples were pounding ever since he had returned to the Pits in the early morning. It wasn’t exactly unusual for War Boys to come home drunk or late in the night. There were no curfews for them, they were grown for fuck’s sake. And yet Nux had been bombarding him with questions ever since. By now, even Morsov had stopped asking questions. Slit couldn’t even tell Nux what had really happened for two reasons. If anyone found out he had accompanied a street girl to safety, everyone would think he was soft. This was what was really bothering him. He couldn’t let his reputation go to waste like that. Then there was the fact that Toast had kissed him. To top that off, he had wanted to kiss her _back_. Such thoughts were akin to traitoring everything the War Boys stood for.  
Slit couldn’t stop thinking about that damn kiss. He hadn’t counted on it; had thought that maybe Toast would spend some more time with him – she hadn’t seemed annoyed by him while they had hung out – but he hadn’t thought she’d kiss him. Her lips had been soft, her taste sweet and her skin warm.  
He wondered what would have happened if she would have let him kiss her back? Their spot hadn’t been open to the Main Street so they could have easily made out for a few minutes. He had never done anything like that before, of course, being a War Boy and all that. What would that feel like? Better than just the single kiss?  
He scratched his own head. Toast had crossed his mind for hours to no end by now and Nux bringing up the past night again and again didn’t make anything better. Morsov staring at them out of curiosity didn’t help that either.

“No, Nux, I won’t take you with me next time I go drinking. You can’t hold your liquor for shit,” Slit barked at him.

“Why’d you stay alone at that motel though? Were you really alone?”

Slit glared at him. He still remembered that conversation they had in the car about a week ago. Nux had confessed his longing for a girlfriend and Slit had shut him down because what the hell would a War Boy do with a girlfriend? Plus, he wasn’t good at talking about soft shit; whether it was girlfriends, kissing or the reason behind the scars on his face. He just didn’t like it.  
Of course Nux would be soft enough to think that Slit had spent the night with some random street girl. In Slit’s mind, that hadn’t been the case – Toast was neither random, nor was she a street girl. She was shine with her sharp tongue and her short spiky hair. Slit had noted that her appearance was so different than her sister’s so maybe they weren’t related by blood? He liked the difference. Capable was soft, Toast wasn’t. Thoughts like these helped him keep a composed face at the moment, helped him think of that kiss as something that had been exciting, not something traitorous.

“Earth to Slit, earth to Slit! Where ya at?” Nux asked while laughing. Slit made a grunt and got up from the ground. Enough thoughts wasted doing nothing and getting rusted; time to go out and do War Boy business. Proper War Boy business.

“I need to get into the city. Need cigarettes and beer. I’m gonna hang with Lug’s crew for tonight. They wanted to scavenge an old house down Raider’s Drive. I’m going to join them.”

“And what about me?” Nux asked, worried about being left behind. Slit grinned. Even as little War Pups it had always been like this. Slit would go about his business, try his goddamn best to be shine and make the Immortan proud and Nux would always feel left out unless Slit took him along to whatever he’d been doing. Reminded him of that one time there had been a raid and Nux hadn’t been a War Boy yet. Slit on the other hand had just gone from War Pup to War Boy and had been selected to come along. The Immortan himself had come along too and so of course Nux had been beyond desperate to come along. Slit hadn’t wanted him in front of the car, but he had managed to smuggle him into the trunk of it at least. That way Nux had peeped at all the cars and trucks racing through the desert through a tiny opening in the trunk deck. When he had opened the trunk again, Slit had taken Nux with him to get some beers, Nux’s first beers, with the other guys. Within the War Boys, underage drinking wasn’t a problem as long as you weren’t wasting yourself.

“You can come along, just don’t fucking start talking about Capable or her sister. Don’t want the boys to think we’re rusted.”

“’Course not. Wouldn’t want the other boys to know about them. At least not yet.”

“’Not yet’?” Slit asked. “You mean you want to introduce them to the boys? Have you become totally wretched in the last twenty four hours?” Slit barked at Nux. He held him at his shoulder just to make him look him in the eyes. “Listen to me, Nux, you’re not going to do this. If you want to ruin your own street rep, go ahead, but leave me out of this. I have no part in you being stupid and rusted.”

“Sure, won’t mention you. But I know that there are quite a few boys who would like to have a girlfriend. Imagine their jealous faces!” Nux laughed. His delight was obvious. Now Slit followed that train of thought, imagined himself and Toast and other War Boys wishing they knew someone as shine as her.

Ridiculous.

He didn’t know anything about Toast besides the fact that she was Capable’s sister. There had been the kiss, but Slit assumed it was just Toast trying to pay him back for helping her, as weird as it made his chest feel. He rubbed his face, his fingertips brushing over his scars. He could barely feel the touch, but he was sensitive to it nonetheless. He suppressed a shudder. It hadn’t gone past him that Toast had kissed the corner of his mouth, right where the scars began. He had barely felt anything and it still managed to yank at his chest. Slit wasn’t sure if he liked the feeling or not, but it had been the first time ever since he cut himself up that a touch to the scars by anyone besides himself hadn’t made him go feral. He hadn’t had the urge to push her away, instead he had wanted _more_. That had been a first.  
At any rates, he couldn’t let himself get soft because of some girl.

“Imagine the look on Morsov’s face if we’d turn up with girlfriends, Slit. We’d be shine and they’d be the rusted ones.”

“No, we’d be roadkill because the Imperators would kick us out for all the right reasons.” Sit flicked Nux’s shaven head. “So keep the redhead and her sister far away from anything that’s got to do with us boys. Better for us and better for them.”

The two War Boys went outside. Nux got into the Chevrolet and Slit onto his bike and they sped down Main Street until they found the place Slit wanted to buy cigarettes and beer at. It was the cheapest one he knew and the owner was used to gang members coming around and buying shit. He wouldn’t call the damn cops on them like some others did.

The high chiming of a bell echoed through the shop as they entered and Nux went over to the magazines; he always liked doing that. Magazines could be a great source of inspiration for a blackthumb like him. Told you what kind of parts you could get where, what kind of color would be good on what material. Those magazines were one of the few things Nux splurged on when he could. Since he got his last salary the day before, he could. Slit grabbed two boxes of six-packs of some no name brand and three packages of cigarettes. He was careful to pick the right ones and not those with mint in them. Disgusting.

“That’d be $22, 85.” Slit handed over the money and Nux shoved a five-dollar bill into the pockets of his leather jacket. They were good to go. Outside the convenience store, Nux kept staring at some stupid street sign.

“Isn’t this close to that diner we were at yesterday?” Nux questioned aloud. Slit just grunted in response. Yeah, they were close but what did it matter? “I’m hungry. We should get something to eat before we go hang out with the others. What do you say?” Slit eyed Nux from head to toe; of course that fucker could go anywhere, but he wanted to go to that stupid diner. Probably expected to see that girl there. Automatically, his thoughts went over to Toast. Nah, she wouldn’t be there. Was probably working to get herself that joke of a salary.

So Slit just shrugged and they walked down the street and around two blocks before they found that small diner on the corner. The sign ‘Luke’s’ was glowing and the customers just getting out of it told them it was open. They entered and immediately a man in his late thirties, maybe early forties came up to them. He was holding a coffee can in one hand and was wearing a flannel and a blue baseball cap. _Grunge is dead_ , Slit thought.

“You again?” Nux grinned at the question and sat down in a chair close to the door. “Liked it so much yesterday we decided to come back. We’ll take two coffees to start this off,” he gave back with a happy grin.

“I liked you more when you weren’t alone. Two War Boys without anybody else to keep them in check are trouble.”

“Not gonna cause any trouble, we swear it,” Nux replied. “You swear it!” Slit barked at Nux. “I ain’t gonna do no promises.” The owner raised his eyes like he thought Slit was stupid or some shit. Slit glared back but the owner didn’t look at him with much interest or fear.

He went behind the counter and came back with two different coffee mugs. Slit laughed. “This place so run-down it doesn’t even have matching coffee mugs. Look at that, Nux,” Slit said.

“Maybe if gang members would respect other people’s business more, then I’d have more matching coffee mugs.” He poured the two War Boys their coffee. Nux’s eyes got big. “Gang members come here often? Destroy your property?” he asked.

“Not anymore since I’ve started throwing coffee mugs at them when they don’t behave.” Slit barked a laugh and then took a sip of the steaming liquid. _Not bad_ , he thought. Definitely on par with the coffee from the Red Hut. Nux grinned into his mug and the owner got out a small notepad with a ball pen.

“So do you guys want to order now or what?” 

* * *

 Toast sighed. Her shift was especially dragging today. There were more customers than last time, but her boss wasn’t there so she had to do all the work that he normally did. She put new books into their destined places, made lists of what books to buy during their next order and then noted single copies with flaws to be put into the remaindered books section. Normally she could listen to the music coming from the speakers above her head during her shift, but they broke last night because Mr. Doose had thought he would be able to ‘upgrade them’ by himself. Of course that hadn’t been the case and now it was awfully silent. Silence wasn’t a problem when she was by herself and could relax at home, but it was now that she had to unpack three new boxes of books with that weird creep from the shoe store on the other side of the street staring down at her.

She glared at him whenever she could. He didn’t stop.

When the clock on the wall told her it was time for her lunch break she got up, took the boxes away from that creep and told Macy to stay at the registers. She’d be back after her break and didn’t want anyone to rob them while Mr. Doose wasn’t there.

Toast took her wallet from her jeans jacket and made her way to the diner around the corner. She counted all the coins she had in her wallet and was delighted to find out that she could easily buy herself a cheese burger and a soda. She hadn’t had any soda in so long because Dag and Angharad insisted it was ‘tasty poison’ and so Furiosa never bought any. She stepped into the diner and immediately regretted her decision, but it was too late to turn around now and pretend that she never came this way.

Of fucking course, Slit would be here. With Nux. Just her lucky day. A rosy blush came up to her cheeks and she entered as both of them looked at her. Nux with excitement that Toast thought had something to do with Capable being her sister and then Slit with something more cautious on his facial features. She couldn’t tell if he was happy or pissed that she was here because his face wasn’t exactly easy to read, with the scars distorting everything.

“Toast! Hey, how are ya doin’?” Nux exclaimed between bites of what looked like a burger. “Is Capable not here with you today?”

“No, she’s working.” She cleared her throat and then nodded at Slit before walking up to the counter to make her order. Slit didn’t return the nod. _Okay_ , she thought, _apparently something is going on_. “One cheeseburger and some chili-cheese French fries.”

“Something to drink too?”

“Uh, a coke please.” Luke nodded and Toast gave him the money he asked for. She still had a few cents left so she could splurge on a newspaper after her shift. The newspaper was a great source of knowledge if you could read between the lines, if you knew what to look for. She used it to see if there was anything new to find about Joe, about what he was doing. Just the other day she read an article about several families getting kicked out of their homes at the end of the month before by the police and what did you know? Suddenly there was another article about several police men having gone to meet Joe at the Summit. Guess that explained it. Those houses were now part of the Wasteland and the damn cops had helped Joe claim it.

Good thing Max wasn’t a cop anymore.

A young man named Caesar, at least according to the small writing on his apron, placed her orders on the counter for her to take. Luke nodded at her as she took the paper bag and turned around to Nux and Slit. Nux was still eating his burger, Slit was watching her. She went over to them and motioned to the only empty chair left at the table. She wasn’t afraid of them and had no problems eating with them, no matter how much Slit stared. Whatever his problem was.

“May I sit?” It never hurt to be polite. “Sure! Come sit!” Nux smiled at her as she sat down and Toast had to grin – he had astounding similarities with a golden retriever puppy. The big eyes, the friendliness. Slit on the other hand was nothing like that. He wasn’t like any dog if you really thought about it. More like a lizard. The golden retriever puppy and the lizard, eating together in a diner. What would that make her? The stupid cat in between?

“What did you get?” Nux asked her. She showed him the cheeseburger, the fries and the coke. “Damn, I should’ve gotten the cheeseburger instead of the regular one.”

“You’re not going to eat another one now, Nux. Finish your food, we gotta go,” Slit said to Nux, intervening before the latter one could get up to get more food.

“You guys going on another raid? Didn’t steal enough money the other day?” Toast gave back without looking at either of them. Instead she bit into her burger.

Slit sneered at her. “We made more than you probably do at your lousy job at that store in a month.”

Touché. Toast couldn’t say that she earned a lot working for Mr. Doose. “But at least I am doing honest work. Capable’s doing honest work too, you know.” Maybe she could get Nux to want to do regular work too, to get him to stop working for Joe.

Slit snickered at her response but didn’t say anything. He probably thought she and her sisters were stupid for doing normal work. Toast bit into her burger a bit harder than necessary. Mentioning Capable was like a magic trick to get Nux’s attention though.

“So Capable is working, you say?” he asked carefully. Toast smiled at him and nodded. He seemed to ponder about her response before getting up from the table without a beat missing.

“I’m going to visit her at work,” he said, wiping his hands clean from any grease with a paper napkin. “The hell you’re going to do!” Slit yelled, but it didn’t help. Nux took the last of his burger and then winked at Toast. “Gotta make up for you telling me that at some point. War Boy’s honor!” he said while clapping his leatherjacket like it was proof somehow. Toast laughed, for reasons unknown to Nux, but he didn’t seem to mind. _War Boy’s honor._ What a ridiculous joke that was, but Toast let him believe she took him seriously. Plus, if he was going to go over to Cape, he might just make her day more bearable. And just to top off everything, Slit was mad as hell. “Oi, I thought we were gonna hang with some other crew tonight! I bought beer for it, you mediocre fucker!” but Nux was already out of the door. Outside of the diner Nux waved goodbye to Toast, who replied with a sly grin.

“What the fuck was that for, huh?” Slit snapped at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Sending him over to your sister like that. You gonna go get him rusted and all that shit. He’s supposed to hang with us today, not your sister.”

“If he wants to hang out with Capable – and if Capable wants to hang out with him – then I don’t see this as a bad thing,” Toast replied.

“He’s a War Boy, he has to stay with us.”

“Gosh, you sound like you’re jealous.” Slit made a disgusted face and Toast giggled into her coke while drinking a sip. “So you’re going to tell me you’re not jealous one bit that he chose my sister over you the second he had the opportunity to do that?” Slit stared at her without a reply coming from him.

“See, you’re jealous.” With an air of victory in that small moment she ate the last of her burger with a sly grin. Then she checked the watch on her wrist and cursed. Her break had ended exactly two minutes ago. Talking and bickering had made her forget time. She tossed the empty paper back and used napkins into the bin near the entrance, then took her jacket and grabbed the paper cup with her coke in it.

“What? You’re going to flee like that?” Slit yelled as Toast leaped towards the door. “Nah, just late for work! See you around or not, Slit.”

Toast ran down the street without looking back and came back to the bookstore with a fine layer of sweat on her forehead.  
Good thing Mr. Doose wasn’t there that day because he would have fired her on the spot, that old cracker.

Slit watched her jump down the flight of stairs and run down the street. She was fast, considering her legs’ length and everything. Good for running away in case the cops closed in on you; with her guts and sharp mind she’d make a good partner he figured. Smart enough to stand guard, fast enough to flee when necessary. Sure, she wouldn’t be good at hand-to-hand combat due to her size, but she could make up for that with a gun. His thoughts went back to the night he had carried her over to that dirty motel. He hadn’t found a gun back then, though on the other hand he also hadn’t searched her properly. There had been no reason for that because she’d been unconscious. Couldn’t fire a gun if you were out of it, could you?

Slit ate the last of his fries and then got up as well. After throwing the money for the meal on the table, he glared at everyone in the diner, the owner excluded because that guy seemed like he’d go through the apocalypse with an aloof attitude. No need to threaten someone who didn’t get the clue.  
Then he went outside, striding down the street with big steps. His biker boots made rough sounds every time he took a new step and people moved out of his way without looking him in the eye. Such a contrast to Toast who had no problems teasing him even when he tried to be scary. They just didn’t have guts, these wretched street people.

Just as Slit was about to get onto his bike, he saw a figure in the bookstore about five yards away. Toast, bending down to retrieve books out of some brown box and placing them into the shelves at different places. The more he thought about it, the more he found that he had some time to waste. Nux had sped off to Capable with the beer in his car and Slit was in no hurry to see Lug and his crew if there was something else to do. At least for a few minutes. _Couldn’t hurt_ , he figured.  
He reached the entrance to the store and pushed the door open. The woman behind the register visibly shrunk together and Slit grinned at her, the scars on his face spreading until he ended up looking like a grotesque figure from a horror comic. Toast hadn’t looked up.

With the same wicked smile on his lips, he leaned over her and spoke low enough for only her to hear. “So you prefer stacking books over riding into the desert? How boring.” Toast made a small sound of surprised and stood up so fast her face almost brushed his. He didn’t flinch and so Toast was left taking a step back. He still grinned at her.

“Thought you weren’t scared of me, Toastie.”

She glared back at him. “Am not. But anybody would be surprised if someone whispered into their ear.”

“Alright, I never whispered.”

“Fine. You grunted then,” she replied with a sneer. “Is that any better?”

Slit huffed and pretended to look at the books. Judging by the look on his face, he found the titles to be shit. Toast would agree with him, these books were shit. Titles along the lines of _’25 ways to make find the right partner!’_ or _‘How to get that job you dream of’_ were just utter bullshit. She liked other books, but a good bookstore would offer something from every genre. Besides, her taste didn’t matter, the customers’ tastes were far more important. They were what brought in the money of course.

“What is this shit?” he asked. Toast snickered. “That’s what people buy when they don’t know how to do shit themselves. You looking for a job? A partner? Don’t know how to do that by yourself? You buy these books and bam, you understand everything and you ain’t got no problems no more.”

“Bullshit,” came his reply and Toast nodded. “You can’t find great jobs here in East Citadel. At least not unless you’re some highly skilled surgeon or an actor or something,” she added.

“Surgeon?”

“Yeah, doctors who cut people open. You know, fix what’s wrong on the inside of their bodies.”

“Oh, you mean organic mechanics?” Slit said.  _Organic Mechanic_. Toast tried to look like that word was new for her while simultaneously fighting down the urge to vomit all over the floor.

The Organic Mechanic. That dirty-ass, perverted-ass, disgusting-ass piece of shit that acted like the personal doctor to Joe. ‘Course she knew him. Every time that piece of trash had made his way into the vault they had been locked in, she and her sisters had been petrified. They knew he liked to touch them, to look at them when they had been lying in front of him, their legs spread and totally exposed to his gawking. He had always licked his lips while poking at them, saliva running down his jaw like he was a dog.

Fucking disgusting piece of shit. Toast wished he was dead. He had been alive for far too long.

“Yeah, I guess I mean those.” She turned away from Slit again, too occupied with her memories shaking her from the inside out to be able to concentrate on the War Boy next to her. Like a routine she took out the next book, looked at its title (‘ _Why You Should Date a Beta Male!_ ’, awful enough to make her want to throw it across the room) and placed it according to the author’s last name into the shelve. Only 23 books left to sort out.

Slit eyed her while holding one of these useless books in his hands. Her knuckles had turned white and her stare had become distant when he had mentioned the Organic Mechanics. He wondered what could have caused that kind of reaction. She had never looked so tense in his presence, but this had completely set her off. Just like him leaning over her from behind. Perhaps she had made bad experiences with an Organic Mechanic. Slit knew only the one that served Joe and that one was an A-grade mechanic. Couldn’t have been him.  
But now she wasn’t looking at him at all anymore. Whatever he had done to her with his words, it had been enough to rattle her up bad enough to lose herself like that.

Made him feel all bad and that weird shit in his chest stirred up again. He rubbed his pecs with a wince and put the book back where he found it.

He watched Toast sort the books for a while until he saw someone else in the same aisle, just at the end of it. Some tall dude with greasy hair and a skin problem look at Toast again and again, about every five seconds. When Toast noticed him, she tried to ignore him, but Slit saw her tensing up again.

“You looking for something?” he growled through almost closed lips, making his voice as low as possible. The guy looked at Slit and a fine layer of sweat appeared on his upper lip. It seemed like he was about to say something when Slit took a step towards him and grinned.   
“If you need help with anything, I’ll be your guy. Because this one here,” he nodded to Toast, “is kinda busy. So I am asking again. You looking for something?” That did the trick. The guy backed off, but not without glancing at Toast two more times. Slit turned around again and she was looking at him again.

“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that,” she said.

“Don’t you know? I’m good at scaring people away. Figured you want this one gone,” Slit answered and puffed out his chest. At least now there was a small smile on her round lips. Looked better that way. Made the aching in his chest feel better, too.   
“I didn’t find you very scary the other night,” she whispered. Slit smiled at her with something Toast thought was a sly grin. It was still hard to tell for her, even with him standing so close.

“Have to change that then. Gotta act like a proper War Boy and scare the hell out of you so you get some brain and stop messing around with me like that,” he gave back. Toast snorted. “I know a lot, War Boy. More than you think?”

Slit raised his eyebrows. “Drinking definitely isn’t one of those things then.”

“Nah,” Toast said and giggled. “Don’t have much experience with that. Got a lot of experience with other things though.” Slit wanted to laugh at her, but it came out more like a quiet chuckle.

“Yeah, I saw that. Caught me by surprise back then,” he replied, his eyes focused on her. She looked at him from beneath her dark eye lashes. She had high cheekbones and her facial features were just as fine as the rest of her. So small compared to him and yet so fierce.

He caught the blush on her cheeks. Maybe the scars really hadn’t bothered her back when she had kissed him. Maybe she did think he was shine enough to spend time with.

Slit leaned closer and saw every freckle on her brown skin.

Toast looked back at him and then panicked. Flashes of Furiosa and all the others came back to her mind; it reminded her of what kind of stupidity she was about to do in bright daylight at her workplace. She took a step back and almost fell over the box of books on the ground.  _Way to ruin a moment_ , she thought. Slit looked at her like she had kicked him and considering what had just happened, her kicking him was a nice way of putting it.  
She cleared her voice. He bit down on his molars, she saw the movement in the way his jaw moved and set.

“I have to do my work here, so…”

“Yeah, I’m sure you do.” He touched the scars on his cheeks like he was in trance and it made Toast want to tell him that it wasn’t the scars that had made her take a step back, but her throat was closed off. Then Slit looked like he wanted to say something before he turned on his heels and went back outside without looking back. Toast watched him make his way to his motorcycle and then drive away, perhaps to do War Boy business. She bit down on her lower lip.

Why hadn’t she been able to simply let him kiss her?

Part of her knew the answer. A small voice in the back of her head reminded her that he was a War Boy. Her heart had beat so fast when he had leaned in, way too fast to be able to lie about it. She would get emotionally attached and getting emotionally attached to a War Boy was like asking to get thrown down a bridge into a frozen river. While you were on fire and there was a bomb attached to your head probably. It’d be stupid.

The expression on Slit’s face had been bad though. There had been so much sincerity in his eyes, she could easily believe he liked her. And there had been honest hurt when she had rejected him, too. Toast had fucked up, her fear had led her to fuck up.

Slit fanged it all the way back to the Pits. He didn’t expect to find Nux there, but the Chevrolet was parked outside. Good enough, at least he’d get to Lug’s crew soon and could drink himself into a temporary coma without having to worry about how to get back to the Pits.  
Nux would take care of him like that. The boy had always noticed when Slit had had one of his episodes. When Slit had come around the corner with a fresh, self-inflicted cut along his ribs, Nux had seen it without it being visible. And Nux had remained the only person so far to do that. So Slit had no doubts Nux would immediately see something was wrong when they’d stand in front of each other.

Slit went to the bathrooms in the far back. The War Boys didn’t have separate bathrooms for themselves, but even though they all shared that one big room, they had different cupboards. In each drawer was a razor as that was the standard as well as some cheap soap to keep them from stinking too bad during summer. The war paint was stacked next to the mirrors (which could really use some cleaning) and Slit went over to them to take a look at himself. The war paint was still in all the right places, the scars were as visible as ever but everything felt wrong on the inside. Like Toast had shaken him up and screwed with his inside wiring.  
Slit turned around and saw the silver handle of a razor. His razor. He had used it yesterday morning to shave his face, body and head. His hands were itching, shaking and sweat broke out on his skin. It ran down his back and left him feeling cold. He wanted the release, he wanted it so bad. But he had promised Nux not to use the razor like that anymore.

Back when Nux had first caught him cutting himself open, he had freaked out. Was the most scared he had ever been and Nux had made Slit promise not to do that shit anymore. Slit hadn’t liked giving that promise. However, to this day he had never seriously thought about breaking it. There had been two, maybe three times, where he had wanted to cut himself, but he had known he wouldn’t really do it. Knew it wouldn’t get him the release he was searching for.  
Now it was the only thing left that made sense. His head didn’t make sense, that pain in his chest didn’t make sense, his guts didn’t make sense.

Seconds passed by and Slit kept staring at the razor. Then he cursed and left the bathroom, half running to get away from the temptation. He felt like a recovered alcoholic who had just refused the finest port there ever was. He went to his ‘bed’ (as in the dirty mattress he slept on) and laid down. Deep breath in, deep breath out. In, out. He got this, he was in control. He got this.

“Slit? Slit!” Nux’ yell made him sit up straight. He heard footsteps approaching and then Nux’s glowing face in the doorframe. He looked like he had just entered Valhalla.

“What?” Slit said without any enthusiasm. He wasn’t in the mood for happy people now.

“Just came back from seeing Capable at work,” Nux replied as if that explained the happy mood. Slit just raised his eyebrows and got up from the mattress. “So we’re going to go to Lug’s crew now or what?”

“Sure, I’m good to go. The beer’s still in the car.” When Slit wanted to leave the sleeping room, Nux held him back by his shoulder. “You won’t believe what happened!” Slit went quiet and then said “What?” with an absolutely empty face.

“She kissed me! Just kissed me! She was talking to me and we were just hanging out – there were almost no customers you see – and she offered me a slice of cake and then she just kissed me!”

That made Slit’s face fall. Not for the reasons Nux could think of, but still, so he kept talking without a pause. “I know what you think; that she’s rusted and mediocre. But man, you don’t know what you’re missing! She’s the shiniest girl out there! Her lips were so soft and she smelled so good – hey where are you going?!”

Slit had heard enough. He stormed out of the room without looking at anyone and simply went to the Chevrolet to get the car warm. Of course he would kiss her.

The worst part was that Nux hadn’t noticed how bad Slit had felt for one second. Hadn't stopped to ask why Slit was so upset like he used to when they were Pups. The euphoria he had felt about kissing Capable had rendered him completely unaware of Slit, had shoved Slit aside.  
When Slit got onto the front seat next to the driver he made himself the promise to drink until he would pass out that night, only to return later to the Pits to break the promise he gave Nux all those years ago.

He fought against the urge to tear the scars on his cheeks open all the way to Lug’s crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I didn't make the self-harm/mental ill part too shallow/too cliché because that really was not my intention.


	9. The Man of Many Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This round, Slit gets drunk. Nux and Capable make out and their happiness sets Slit off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses a lot on Slit's mental health (or lack thereof) and thus may be triggering to some people.

Capable saw Nux’s Chevrolet pulling up outside the café and her heart skipped a beat. Hopefully he was alone. It’d be nice to talk to him again, just him without Slit accompanying him everywhere. The lanky figure got out from the car and he jaywalked across the street to push the door to the Red Hut open. Both of them grinned as he entered. One quick glance told him there were few customers asking for Capable’s attention.

Perfect, he wouldn’t bother her too much then if he talked to her again. Last thing he wanted was to get her into trouble for taking up her time while she should be working. Didn’t want her to lose her job or some shit! Not because of him.

“Hey,” they said at the same time with sheepish grins. Capable’s cheeks had a faint pink blush and even though she couldn’t see beneath the war paint on Nux’s skin, she was sure he was feeling the same way. Yes, there were so many things wrong about the War Boys, wrong with Nux. Things that they had to discuss and things that needed to be settled if they really wanted to pursue things. Dating maybe. But Capable couldn’t deny that she simply found herself liking him in spite of everything being so difficult and complicated. She just liked him.

“I’ll take a black coffee to go with sugar and cream.”

“Sure thing,” she said, still with a smile on her lips.

“You look so good when you smile, you know that?” Nux said. She laughed and turned half away from him to fill his cup with what he had requested. “So, are you alone today? No second cup for Slit?” she asked him. “Yeah, I’m alone. Slit and I ran into your sister just now! Toast! She’s cool.”

“You ran into Toast again? I’m glad you like her.” Though Capable wasn’t so sure if her sister liked War Boys dancing around her all the time. She liked her peace and quiet and to stay away from War Boys as much as possible. But she was glad if Nux liked her family. Perhaps if he ended up liking them enough, he’d see any harm done to them as an atrocity. Angharad would gladly meet Nux, that much was sure, the Dag would come just to get to see Nux finally and Cheedo would tag along.  
Furiosa would be eternally suspicious. Plus, she couldn’t introduce Nux to Furiosa. Nux would recognize her immediately and Furiosa wouldn’t hesitate for a second to defend herself or the sisters. If Max was there, that would only make things worse. So she’d have to hide her relation to Furiosa from Nux for the meantime.

“Yeah, she’s so different from you though. Not just her behavior, but your appearance, too.”

“I know, that’s because we’re not related by blood. I have four sisters overall. We all grew up under the same circumstances and it made us form a sister-like bond with each other.”

“There are five of you then? Valhalla, didn’t know so many shine girls all existed at the same place,” Nux said while laughing.

“Yeah, uhm, we spent a lot of time together and we moving together would be the best. Do you have any siblings?” Capable tried to turn the attention away from her.

“No. Don’t know any War Boy who has a brother. Most of us don’t have family at all, you know? Know only a couple who remember their parents.”

“Did you get taken as a child?” Capable asked with care. “Sure did! Got accepted as a War Pup. Best day of my life, you know? Saved me from growing up on the streets and becoming one of the wretched.” Nux looked at her with all the seriousness in the world. She could imagine how you could end up worshipping the man who saved you from a miserable life on the streets, as much as she hated Joe.

“Do you remember your parents, Capable? Where did you grow up?” he questioned. Capable sighed and Nux raised his hands before she could answer. “No need to say anything if it makes you uncomfortable. Don’t want you to hate me.”

“Don’t worry, it’s just…it’s hard to talk about. I don’t remember my parents at all. I do remember where I grew up though of course. For a long time, you see,” Capable said while coming around the counter, “I was by myself with some other children. Nothing special.” She led Nux to a table in the corner of the café. “Then my life changed when I was about, mh, 17 I think.”

“What happened?” he asked with big eyes. _Almost innocent_ , Capable thought, _like a child that didn’t know any better_.

“I met a man. Not a very nice one. He gave me money, nice clothes. A place to live with his other girlfriends.”

“He had multiple ones?” Nux asked, obviously confused. Capable nodded.

“Those girlfriends ended up becoming my four sisters. Soon enough, he became very…controlling you could say. We weren’t allowed to leave our destined place anymore and he ended up locking us up in it.”

“Sounds like an asshole,” Nux gave back and she had to smile. If only she could tell him that he had just called his own god an asshole. But she was glad that he at least seemed to agree that the ominous man Capable talked about did evil. If she told him the truth someday, then maybe he’d be more understanding.  
Nux reached over the table and carefully, slowly put his hand over her shaking one. A reassuring gesture, no matter how unsure Nux seemed to be. Capable smiled at him, encouraging him that the gesture was appreciated. He rubbed a thumb over her hand gently.

“Yes,” she whispered. “He was a real asshole.”

Shortly after the calm period, a wave of customers entered the café and Capable had to get up and work. Nux kept sitting where he had been before and simply followed the redhead around with his gaze, a bit more euphoric each time Capable glanced at him to give him a smile. In the red light of the shop, the color in her hair was more intense than in the dim light of the clouded sky outside.  
He would have liked to let his hands roam through her hair, to touch the fiery silk and see if it was really as soft as it looked. Though he didn’t know her enough to be able to anticipate her reaction. It’d be something to do another day maybe. For now all he wanted was to be able to stare at her, long enough until the fire on her head would burn itself into his mind. Forever there for him to marvel at it. He didn’t have a camera so his memory was all he had.

When the sudden rush of customers died down once more, she returned to him and she placed her warm hand into his extended hand without any further encouragement. He was sure he had never been any happier or whole on the inside. He picked up what he had been doing before, his thumb brushing over her hand in a steady pace.

“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked him.

“You don’t have to feed me, Cape. Ate lunch at that diner we were at yesterday again! ‘Lukas’’ or something?”

“’Luke’s’?” she suggested. “Yeah! That one. It’s where we met Toast.”

“’We’? You and Slit again?” Capable questioned with a giggle.

“Sure thing. Toast came in, saw us and then ate lunch with us,” Nux said in all seriousness. Oh, Capable would _so_ have to talk to her sister once she’d come home. Had to ask her about Nux and Slit and if Toast thought Nux could make a good boyfriend. That was a conversation she was looking forward to.  
“Well, would you still like something to eat anyway? It’s my treat so don’t worry about paying for it or anything.”

“Well, what do you have then?” he replied with a grin. He couldn’t say no to food in the end.

“Let me see.” She went back behind the counter, making Nux sit behind at the table. Capable took her time choosing what she was going to give him. They had cupcakes, but they also had some freshly baked cake. It was an orangey cake with saffron and caramel. The saffron had been so expensive, Capable had to look twice at the price tag when she had spotted it in the supermarket. Now she thought it had been worth it.  
Capable cut a big slice off the cake, placed it in a paper box for Nux to carry it around and eat it at the Pits or wherever he wanted to. On top of the box she placed a silver bow, assuming that Nux would like the silver one the most since it had the same color as the chrome spray paint the War Boys painted themselves with before they died in battle.

She stepped out from behind the counter and walked towards him with the box extended in her hands. His eyes got big and his face had the same expression as a child on their birthday, surrounded by presents from their parents.

“You didn’t have to do that, Cape,” he told her as she sat down.

“Tough luck, because I wanted to.” This time it was her who took his hand and squeezed it gently. Nux accepted the box and turned his attention back to her.

“So what are you going to do the rest of the day?” she inquired.

“Hm, Slit wants to drive over to another crew and get drunk I think. We bought beer and cigarettes and all that.” Speaking of which, Nux looked at his phone. Damn, he’d been sitting around the café for almost an hour by now. He had to get going or else Slit was going to kick him out for having become so soft.

Funny, because Nux didn’t feel soft at all.

“Shit,” he cursed. “I gotta go back to the Pits, Cape.” He took her hand in between his bigger ones.

“When will we see each other again?”

“Don’t know,” Nux admitted, “But if you want to, I can call you tomorrow maybe. Won’t be calling you tonight, getting drunk and all that means I shouldn’t be calling you I think.”  
Nux looked at her with an apologetic face, clearly upset that he had to leave so soon. Spending time together was so easy and carefree. Made him forget about any shit that was going on at the Pits. Made him feel like his whole life was a-okay.

“Tomorrow then,” she said quietly. The silence between them was comfortable, both of them too content to say anything and then, like on a command, they both lowered their faces onto each other and pressed their lips together. The kiss was soft, gentle and sweet. To Capable, at that moment at least, Nux was everything Joe could never be. Nux was kind and gentle.  
When they broke apart, it was Nux who smiled with a deep blush on his cheeks. The redness came even through his war paint.

“You’re incredible, you know that, Cape?” he whispered in her ear. A prickling sensation went through her body where she could feel his breath on her skin. Then he kissed her again and once more before getting up from the table, much to her dismay.

“I really have to go now, but…,” he leaned closer. “If you’d like to I’ll visit you at work again, too. We can talk about that tomorrow on the phone, yes?” he suggested. Capable nodded.

Tomorrow couldn’t come too fast now.

After Nux had left the café (but not without glancing back at her four times), the rest of her shift had been exhaustingly boring. No customer that came in was able to distract her from her daydreaming, no one could make her think of anything else but Nux. She definitely had to tell her sisters about the kisses now, she wouldn’t be able to keep that a secret from them. Besides, if they saw how blissful she was, they wouldn’t judge her happiness. They’d be happy for her, she was sure of it.

By the time she left the café that day, it was almost dark. She thought about Nux and if he was already drunk by this time. She couldn’t guess what his personality was like when he was drunk. Maybe he’d be less shy? More outgoing? She didn’t even know how her own personality changed when she would get drunk, she’d never been drunk before. Joe had never allowed them to do any of that. Too much drinking and you’d risk to lose any unborn child and because they were breeding stock, having babies had been their one and only task. Even when they had to entertain him when he came to them at night, it’d been only him who’d drink alcohol.  
In a way, Capable understood why Toast had gotten wasted the other night. Another way to protest everything Joe had made them do, or in this case not do.

The ride home was spent dreaming about Nux, about kissing him again, about holding his hand again. How wonderful it had been! His hands had been soft, surprising considering he was a blackthumb. Thinking about this made her think about the rest of his body. Was the skin on his back or his chest equally soft? Would she ever find out? Was he as curious about her as she was about him? Maybe. Probably.

Capable took the stairs up to the house with a spring in her walk and when Cheedo opened the door, she was grinning from ear to ear. Cheedo didn’t immediately understand of course, but the Dag took one moment at her sister and knew something good had gone down. The kinda good that made you grin for days.

“Angharad is upstairs. Toast is in her room reading some newspaper she bought after work.” When Capable took the first step, the Dag grabbed her by the arm and made her turn around.

“I know something good happened, you ray of sunshine, I can see it. I expect full details before we go to bed tonight. Everything.”

“Fine, I promise to tell you everything. We’ll have a girl talk before bed. You can bring popcorn if you want to,” Capable replied. The Dag clapped her hands and strode away into the kitchen with her usual elegance. Cheedo was looking at her sisters like she was bursting with curiosity but the older girl made her focus on peeling the potatoes.

Upstairs, Capable first went into Toast’s bedroom. She wanted to know about that lunch break she’d had with Slit and Nux. Hopefully Nux had said something about her. A soft knock on the wooden door was followed by a soft ‘Yes!’ and Capable stepped in. Her sister was sitting on the bed, a newspaper sprawled over her lap and a red pen in her hand. She was scanning the newspaper for articles about Joe, anything useful to keep them one step ahead of him if necessary.

“Anything new?” Capable asked with a nod at the paper in Toast’s lap.

“No, nothing so far. Raids, like the usual, and the War Boys have claimed more territory. That empty public pool near Birch Street? Yeah, War Boy territory now. Something else added to the Wasteland to go to shit. Like everything else.” Toast took a good look at her sister and then furrowed her eyebrows. She put the paper away and changed her sitting position on the bed.

“What happened? You look like you just won the lottery or something.”

The direct question made Capable blush until her face was as red as her hair. “Nux kissed me today. Or we both kissed each other at the same time. More than once actually.”

Toast tried to keep her face even. “Y-You did?” On the inside her stomach was turning into a black hole. Because if Nux and Capable kissed, Nux was sure as hell going to brag to Slit about it, had to. He liked Capable too much and was probably real damn proud of himself for having kissed someone like her – and her reciprocating the gesture and the feelings to make things even worse for Toast. He’d go up to Slit and tell him straight in his face about how awesome his afternoon had been, kissing a pretty girl. She could only imagine Slit in that moment. His face would remain unmoved, he wasn’t the type to lose his face easily. He’d grow quiet maybe. Toast wasn’t sure about other reactions though.

A conversation the five sisters had together came back to her mind. Capable had told them all about that time she had nursed Nux back from the half-dead. According to Capable, Nux had told her about the scars on his face. He had fallen onto a glass window with his face first and the heavy scars had been what was left. Her sister had asked him if War Boys hurt each other too, maybe to settle some beef or if there was a competition going on but Nux had explained to her that War Boys had to rely on each other too much to do that to each other. If a War Boy hurt another one of his comrades, stark punishment would follow. Back then Capable hadn’t asked about Slit of course, but now that Toast thought about it, the scars had to be a sore spot for him, literally.  
And if it hadn’t been done to him by someone before he became a War Pup, then it had to be the result of an accident. Only problem was she couldn’t think of an accident to leave almost identical scars at identical places. Both scars going from his cheeks all the way down to the corners of his mouth on both sides.

And if hadn’t been an accident, nor another War Boy, then the only explanation left was that he had done it himself.

She shuddered at the thought of that, him taking a blade to his mouth; a knife perhaps or a razor and then cutting himself open. She had no idea what kind of motives may had have driven him to perform such drastic measures for whatever reason there was to do something like that to yourself, but she knew that someone who was able to cut himself open was also able to do far worse to themselves.

As if she wasn’t feeling horrible already.

But for now, all she could try to do was to be happy for her sister. At least one person in this household deserved to be happy.

“I’m happy for you, Cape. I mean with everything we went through, if that boy can make you at least the tiniest bit happy…”

“He does, Toast. He’s not perfect, far from it and it’ll take time to make him see what we see, you know? But I am willing to invest that time. You’ve seen him yourself. Do you think he’s a bad guy? Unredeemable?”

Toast laughed. Calling Nux ‘unredeemable’ would be an exaggeration. “No, I’d use that word to describe assholes like Joe. His sons, too.”

After the two girls finished talking and Capable was able to leave Toast’s room with her heart light and her head filled with thoughts about Nux. Toast stayed in her room with her heart full of worries. If she was right about Slit (and her stomach twisted at the thought of that), then there was a chance he did something stupid tonight. He had looked emotional enough for that when he had left the bookstore.

* * *

Bottle number six went down with a splashing sound as Slit let the bottle fall down to the ground with a grunt. Bottle number seven would be on the way the moment he’d empty the bottle in front of him. He made himself the promise to drink until he’d pass out. If he wouldn’t be able to do that, he’d go home to his razor. Slit wasn’t afraid of pain, though he knew Nux would make him feel even shittier once he found out.

Was worth it though, getting that release.

“Hey, Slit, man, are you trying to drink everything tonight?” Trim asked with a grin.

“I sure do.” He tried to keep his voice as low as possible. He couldn’t let other people know how riled up he was on the inside. “If you do, don’t puke on me though, mate. Don’t want your puke on me!” Trim shouted above the noise of so many War Boys chatting and drinking. Slit spit some of the beer in his mouth into Trim’s direction on purpose and the boy kicked his leg to make him stop.

Slit choked on the beer and Trim turned away to focus on talking to Kaz instead. Slit glanced at his partner only to see Nux staring at his phone. The boy had been lost in dreamland ever since he had come back. Made Slit want to take the Chevrolet and run it into a wall just to mess with Nux, not that the guy deserved any of it. Slit knew being angry wasn’t right, but he couldn’t help it. The look on Toast’s face as she had stepped away from him was still burning in his mind.  
He wished he could erase it.

If there was any chance of him getting any sort of emotional release tonight, he hoped he could forget about the look on her face as well.

With a cuss he got onto his feed, had to stand still for a few moments to let his vision settle again. He took the bottle of vodka next to Lug and wanted to get away from them as Lug’s head snapped around and shouted at him. “Oi, where are you going?”

“Taking a piss around the corner. You wanna come along or what now?” Slit barked back. The tone in his voice made Lug let the conversation drop. He was the younger one and Slit was the one with forehead grease, not him.  
Slit stomped past the other boys sitting on the ground and made sure to disappear around the corner and out of their sight.  
While he was emptying his bladder, he looked at the wall he was pissing against. Made of bricks, sturdy enough to last over time. After he closed his zipper again, he looked at his hands. Somehow the brown color of the wall had reminded him of Toast again, reminded him of Nux and Capable and he wanted to scream.

Slit let his right fist ram into the stone. Once, twice, he switched left and right. Over and over again until there was blood glistening in the dim light of the nearest street lamp. When his hands were shaking he knew it was enough and he went to his bike to go back to the Pits. At the moment he didn’t care that he was drunk or that his knuckles hurt so bad he could barely grip the handles on the bike properly.

He just didn’t care. He fanged it like he should as a War Boy.

The Pits were empty because everyone who gave a shit about their reputation was currently hanging out with Lug’s crew. Perfect. It’d give Slit the kind of privacy he needed for what he planned to do.

About an hour later when the first boys came back from the party, Slit was already lying on his mattress. He pretended to be asleep just so that no one would fucking talk to him. The bottle of vodka stood next to his head, empty and on his stomach was a brand-new band aid, unbeknown to anyone else. It stretched all the way from his hip bone to his ribs. Beneath it was a cut, not deep enough to cause real damage, but good enough to have given Slit the release he had been looking forwards to for hours.

He slept until noon the next day.


	10. Ashes to Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last night's mistakes bring misery in the morning and Toast and Slit meet again after that rather embarrassing last encounter.

If I could take her down and run, then I'd call her  
'Cause she's standing drama, she knows I'll call her  
She's getting on the sun and that she ordered  
Imagine me, imagine me now  
I don't take her number, just don't think I'd call her  
I take her down to somewhere dreading all day  
I clear my system, I don't need no other  
This is my persona, secret lover (she's my collar)  
Nothing to be justified in  
Just one thing, you should feel nada I know she lies,  
I know she's my caller  
I sense her in my mind, she's my collar

* * *

 

Toast didn’t look forward to work the next day, she rarely did. It wasn’t fun if Mr. Doose was around. He always kept a tight eye on her and the other employees, ready to fire anyone who made a mistake, or on the few customers that happened to enter his store. After all, they could all be evil little thieves. Toast rolled her eyes at him whenever he didn’t look her way. Today was an even worse day for her. Not only did she not look forward to Mr. Doose’s constant nagging, she also didn’t look forward to meeting a certain individual. Her stomach churned whenever her brain made her remember the last night in vivid detail. Capable’s confession hadn’t helped lessen her worry in the slightest. Toast knew Slit was a mentally ill man, if there ever was one. She didn’t have to be a psychologist to see that he had problems, most of them rooted within himself. If her theory was right and he had indeed cut himself open, then his problems were worse than she thought and her behavior had made it worse. She kicked a stone out of her way and the tip of her red sneakers managed to launch the pebble several yards ahead of her.

Stupid War Boy, doing stupid things to himself and making her feel responsible for it. The rational part of her brain knew she wasn’t at fault for what had happened. She hadn’t led Slit on, taking a step back and not wanting to kiss someone wasn’t a crime and whatever problems the boy had with himself, he had to sort of with his therapist. Not Toast.

Thing was, had she _really_ not wanted to kiss him a second time? Toast wanted to force her brain to think about something else, about her studies, but it always came back to Slit. As stupid as it was, she had wanted to kiss that stupid mug of his at least one more time. The first kiss hadn’t even been a real one, only on the corner of his mouth. Did that even count? And even though he was a War Boy, he had definitely known what she was about to do. He had even initiated that second, failed kiss. So clearly, Slit wasn’t against kissing her at all. This was a different question now after what happened at work the day before of course. For all she knew, she could now be the victim of an enraged War Boy, whose pride she had wounded by rejecting him. Hadn’t she read so many stories about women and girls being abused from scorned lovers? What if he was out for revenge now? His face had been emotionless when had left the store, but you could never know with those War Boys. They may come back to haunt you, big time.

By the time she reached the bookstore, she had chewed her lower lip bloody and had to apply some chapstick over it to keep it from burning throughout her shift. Toast was early today, her shift starting from the early hours of the morning until midday. Her bag didn’t contain a lunch box – a decision she regretted now. When she had decided not to take some food with her to work, she had thought she could go for another delicious burger or some chili fries at Luke’s again, but she remembered that the boys now went there too. Slit and Nux both had gone there and they certainly had liked it. Perhaps even enough to return again today.

Toast bit her lip bloody again at that thought and had to put the book in her hands down to check on her lip. Mr. Doose couldn’t catch her with a bloody lip, he’d send her to a hospital to get that in check since he was overly careful at all times.

Well, she didn’t want to run into War Boys again, but no one would also catch her running with her tail clutched between her legs either. The thought of meeting Slit again turned her hands sweaty, but she’d go to Luke’s again this midday. Just to make sure everyone knew that Toast didn’t care and that she went where she wanted to.

That included going to whatever diner she wanted to.

Mr. Doose came out of his office and placed another package full of books in front of Toast to sort out. A quick glance at the new material and she could tell that none of it would be of great value. Two novels about a middle aged woman finding love after she left her husband. One story about missing children, a crime novel perhaps. And a copy of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’ – that one did catch Toast’s attention. The book was in relative good condition, judging by the rest of the novels in this store, a bit dusty perhaps. She blew across the cover and sent dust flying everywhere. Whose book had this been before? Had that person never heard of cleaning anything? A quick glance inside told Toast the pages were a little yellow, but no coffee stains or dog ears ruined the exterior.

Good enough for Toast to take home with her; she put the novel aside and began sorting out the rest of the box, put the novels into their rightful places. Mr. Doose wouldn’t have anything against her buying a book. He loved money too much and didn’t care where it came from, even though he probably wouldn’t want to have gang members among his list of valued customers.

* * *

 

“Yo Slit, what happened to your hands?” _Of course that noisy fucker would ask questions._

Slit had thought about bandaging his blue and purple bruised fingers so that Nux wouldn’t see everything right away, but then he’d ask why Slit would be wearing bandages and it’d result in the same outcome anyway.

“Nothing,” Slit murmured while securing the next screw on the car in front of him. A Chevrolet Impala, built in ’67, black. The car came in this morning and Slit almost cut open Yurosh to get to it first and mark his territory. No more waiting for Nux to take him somewhere. Sure, he had his motorcycle, but you couldn’t carry any luggage around on it.  
He also bought new varnish for this jewel, extra black with a glossy finish since it got rusted around the bumper bars and the windshield. Once Slit would be done with this, it’d be his alone.  
He could be a driver, too, during the raids. With a tuned engine and a lancer seat he’d be ready to go. Maybe one of the boys would be willing to lance for him, there are enough Boys at any rate. Many of them don’t get to go on raids simply because of a lack of place. Pursuit vehicles got the most glory, but all the drivers had set partners for lancing. So if you wanted to join a raid, you had to find a partnerless driver, of which there were none. A driver rarely stayed alone, the younger Boys leapt at any chance to tag along on raids. If Slit offered one of them the lancer seat, none of them would reject him, the glory was too chrome and Valhalla in reach. They wouldn’t get another chance like this. Only someone totally rusted would decline the offer – and War Boys weren’t rusty.

He almost wanted to grin at this plan, the future looked shine right about now.

“Oi, you asshole, this doesn’t look like nothin’!” Nux remarked and flicked his partner’s ear with his thumb and forefinger. “Looks like you gave someone a proper beating! Who was it?” Nux grinned at him and those blue eyes sparkled. “Was it someone I know?” He scanned over the Boys around him, but none of them showed any signs of bruises, no wounds on their mouths’ either. Another gang member maybe? Mountain Riders often asked for a beating when they entered War Boy territory without proper reason, but Nux would’ve heard of such an incident by now. Last night the War Boys had been drunk, so there was no way none of them wouldn’t have taken part in hunting down another gang.  
He gave Slit a clap on the back and grinned like a pale devil.

“Did he deserve it at least?” Slit often got into fist fights, most of them ending in his favor. But Slit rarely beat up someone who didn’t deserve it.

“Yeah, he’s an idiot.” “Ah, so it was Morsov, yeah,” Nux said while laughing.

“No, you wouldn’t know him,” Slit retorted and then remained silent. The way his partner’s lips pressed down together made Nux turn serious. He knew that face, he’d seen it a hundred times before. Time for jokes was over. Even when he was poking fun at Slit, Nux always noticed when something was wrong with him. A good partner’s supposed to do this kind of stuff if you asked Nux.  
He lowered his voice. “Come on Slit, who was it? What happened?” Because something obviously had happened.

“It’s none of your damn business, Nux.”

“You’re my partner! Of course it’s my business. Something is up and I think talking about it would help.” Whenever Slit held in his emotions, he ended up hurting himself or lashing out at some innocent bystander.

“So you wanna talk about feelings ‘n shit? You rusted now or what?” Slit spat back, turning his gaze to Nux. “You wanna start hugging things out too?” The sarcasm dripped from every word.

“Nah, but I _know_ you, Slit. I know something is up.” “Ah, do you now? Last time I checked you were too busy with that redheaded girlfriend of yours.”

Nux blinked at him in surprise. It was true that he had barely paid any attention to Slit last night; the wonderful afternoon he’d had with Capable had been filling his head and heart from the inside out. “Well, I am listening to you now. So what is up?”

“Nothing,” Slit barked at Nux, now throwing a cleaning cloth at his face, just to get rid of him. He got up and dusted off his cargo pants., then straightened his leather jacket. There was no way he’d tell Nux what happened between him and Toast, about the almost kiss or the night they spent together in that dirty motel room.

“Where are you going?” Nux yelled after him as Slit moved towards the exit of the Pits. “Oi, asshole, I asked you a question!” But Slit didn’t listen. His head was pounding and he had to get out of the Pits and drive around, just to clear his head for a while. It was the only thing he knew that’d help.

As soon as he was around the corner with his motorcycle, the only thing left behind him was dust. Slit didn’t wear a helmet when he drove around, he didn’t need to – the police would never hunt down a War Boy for something as little as not wearing a helmet. The Immortan practically owned the police and the War Boys were his business, therefore they didn’t intervene. Sure enough, from time to time there’d be new policemen who were overeager to be righteous and to get Boys behind bars, but they soon enough learned their lesson and wouldn’t try to touch a Boy again. Not in this city, not in the Wastelands.

Minutes go by and Slit circles through the town; he didn’t see anything exciting, no other gang members to provoke, no dirty filth lingering in War Boy territory. Frustrated and sweating under his leather, he got off his motorcycle and took a look around. There was a convenience store on the corner and a park further down the road.

 _This was the place where Toast had kissed him._ Down in that park. It looked different in daylight; the night had distorted his memories and the light cleared it again. He stomped down the street into the convenience store and yes, daylight changed this place, too. There was a different staff member behind the counter staring at him with fear in his eyes. A kid, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. Small, a fleeting chin and short dark-blond hair on his head. Barely a few hairs on his upper lip. This made Slit want to laugh, because if he wouldn’t shave he’d have a full beard and a hairy chest, too. With or without hair, he looked ten times more chrome than this guy.

With great steps he strode to the beer. It stood inside the refrigerated display case and Slit grabbed a six-pack, then went to the sandwiches. Tuna-mayo and egg-mayo were the only choices left so he took one of each. This, too, reminded him of Toast. With a sour look on his face, he placed everything on the counter and threw down the money on the counter. The boy behind the register looked at him, then at the money and took the change out with shaking hands, but Slit just turned on his heels, the beer and food in his hands. He didn’t want to spend any time further on interaction with others. The more time he spent on this street, the more he wanted to be left alone.  
One look down the street, towards the park, and he had an idea in mind. He wasn’t keen on running into anyone today and those abandoned houses were the perfect place to sneak away. No one would come looking for him there, Nux being the person he wanted to avoid the most.

He opened the first beer before he entered the park, then opened the second one before he broke into the empty house on the very left. All of its windows had wooden slats in front of them, secured with nails. The door had mold all over it, and while kicking it down would’ve been easy, Slit wanted to keep it where it was. Keep it looking like no one had ever entered before him.

That way, maybe he could return to this place, mark it as his own territory. If he’d bring some of the Boys along, they could tag it and mark it as theirs. They could kick off any other filth that would try to linger around their place. It wasn’t great or shine enough to make Joe look at him, but it’d be enough to give the War Boys another place to own.

On the first floor, there was little to see. Those apartments had been standing empty for years judging by the amount of dust and cobwebs, their kitchens and bathrooms covered in mold. But the apartments on the second floor were better, worth scavenging. He found a closed off desk; maybe it’d been somebody’s office back in the day, who knew. Inside he found some yellow paper, a pencil, more dirt and a lighter. He didn’t care for the paper or the pencil, but the lighter was chrome. Made from metal and engraved with somebody’s initials. A.N. Well, whoever this was, he had their lighter now. Bad for them, good for him.

He put it to good use right then and there by lighting a cigarette. Once he had taken two drags on it, he continued to scavenge through the rest of the apartment. To his right, there was the bedroom. It was dusty and smelled faintly of mold, but in better shape than the apartments downstairs. The springs squeaked as his weight rested on the mattress, but besides that it was still intact.  
His fingers roamed through his leather jacket and found the sandwiches he had put in there. He opened another can of the beer he’d bought as well and drank it with three gulps.

As he thought about which sandwich to eat first, he heard faint footsteps on the staircase.

* * *

 

Toast had plenty of time to spend after the end of her shift. The rest of her sisters would be busy today; Angharad was at the hospital for another visit, Dag and Cheedo were with her. They’d accompany her to go shopping for baby clothes later. Capable was without a doubt at the Red Hut, serving coffee and scones dutifully. Toast didn’t have any doubts that there was a certain War Boy lingering around her either. Judging by the way her sister had talked about Nux, the War Boy seemed to have been behaving pretty well. At least for a War Boy. _Maybe Nux wasn’t one of those braindead gorillas after all_ , Toast thought snickering to herself.

Her visit to Luke’s diner was less nerve thrilling than expected. Only two grumpy old men had been sitting in the corner, drinking their coffee without creating any trouble. The owner had been wearing the same blue baseball cap as the days before, but he’d changed the flannel he’d worn the days before.

“No company today,” he stated as a matter of fact. “No War Boys on your heels.”

“No, not today. I heard War Boys are bad for your health,” she replied, the corner of her mouth pulling up.

“I think you can take care of yourself. So, what is it today?”

“I’ll have a cheeseburger, some fries and a strawberry milkshake,” Toast said. “Some ketchup, too, please.”

“Got it.” No further dialogue was necessary and Toast waited with patience for everything to be done. A boy called Cesar placed her order on the counter and she gave Luke a nod as she turned around and made her way out of the diner. Bells chimed and the door fell into place when she stepped onto the street with the food in her arms. She didn’t want to eat near the diner today, because even if there had been no War Boys at that moment, they might turn up every other second and she was alone. She didn’t want to face an entire horde of them. Two she could deal with, especially if half of that was Nux, but an entire pack? No thank you. She had a rather strong will to survive.

She could go back home and eat in their kitchen. Furiosa and the Many Mothers were out, doing their work, so Toast would be alone. However, it was rare for her to have so much free time that she didn’t know what to do. She’d never seen a lot of East Citadel City – today could be a great opportunity to change that. One look down the street and Toast made up her mind. There were still those empty houses that she had seen together with Slit, roaming through them could show her all kinds of treasures. Who knew what was hidden inside those old, dusty walls? Maybe someone had left something behind. Her curiosity made her walk faster and faster until she’d reached the corner and saw the convenience store where she had bought the sandwiches with that War Boy. Only eight more yards and she would reach the park together with her destination.

It was strange how much a difference daylight could make. Last time she had been here, she had barely seen her surroundings. Now she could see the naked trees, the grey ground and the pond. Its water was so dirty, she didn’t see the bottom of it and she assumed that if fish ever lived inside of it, some War Boys probably caught them a long time ago. The cold winter air made her breath come out in white clouds and her cheeks red.

Time to enter one of these houses. The closest house was the one to her left and it was the one in the best condition. The others looked like they’d fall apart any moment. This house’s door was still intact so she assumed no one had entered it before her; a safe choice then. But she didn’t want to break the door. If someone caught her, she would be in serious trouble, that person could report her after all.

The small pebbles beneath her shoes made crunching sounds as she walked around the building, taking in every window and every angle. There were graffiti on the back of it, but not by gang members judging by the looks of them. Must have been homeless people then; Toast remembered reading about this while she and her sisters had been locked up in the vault. Homeless people and vagabonds roaming outside used symbols and coded language to communicated with each other. To inform each other about cops, for example, or other more dangerous gang members.

Toast couldn’t read them, but she touched the color and she was right; it was covered in dirt and dust. So they were old and whoever drew them had been long gone. Good for her.

To her left there was a window with wooden slats so moldy she just took them off without any further work necessary.  _An easy way in_ , Toast mused. She didn’t mind the size of the window either. It was so small, no War Boy would be able to crawl through it. Joe was quite strict with the requirements for his zealots when it came to body measurements. They couldn’t be below 5’5” or else they wouldn’t become full-fledged War Boys; they’d stay War Pups forever. They had to keep a certain physique, muscular, fit and lean – quite the irony considering Joe was fat and old.

As Toast pushed the dusty window open and swung her feet over the edge, she smirked. Joe was old and soon enough that fucker would die, his one true heir out of reach for him and his reign would come to an end. Rictus, Corpus and Scrotus were incapable of ruling East Citadel City the way Joe did and Toast would watch their downfall with utter glee.

Though she kinda wished that she could spit upon his corpse, but she was happy if he would die either way.

The light that now came into the room through the opened window highlighted every little piece of dust in the air. Her eyes got adjusted to her new surroundings and she finally made out more than vague shapes. She stood in a kitchen, small and dirty. The tiles beneath her shoes were a dark yellow, as if the previous tenant had pissed all over it.

She shook her head and walked out of the room.

The floor was just as dirty as the kitchen and Toast got the sudden urge to wash her hair. She must have walked through some cobwebs by now. Wanting to shake off any dirt that might have collected on her head, she tilted her head and her gaze fell onto something else.

The floor was covered in dirt, dust piling up like a thick blanket, but on the stairs were footprints. There had been none in the kitchen as far as she had noticed, but there were definitely big footprints right in front of her. One on each step.

Someone had been in here before her, not too long ago because there was no new dust on the footprints. And they didn’t lead out either which meant that –

It meant that whoever entered this building before her may still be upstairs. Her heart skipped a beat.

 _Oh no._ Flight or fight, flight _or_ fight, she thought with a racing heart. Sweat broke out on her upper lip and her back, running down her skin even though it was winter and her breath still came out in white puffs. Had she been too loud? She hadn’t thought anybody would be in here, but she had still been careful not to make any sounds.

Whoever was upstairs caused the wooden floor to creak, so they were walking around. Had they heart her?

Another creak.

Toast licked her lips as the person upstairs came closer to the floor and she moved down that one step from the stairs that she had taken. Brown eyes darted around and found another room behind the stairs. It wasn’t entirely out of sight from the second floor, but the person would only see her if they’d twist their head at a rather uncomfortable angle. Since it was the only option she had left to hide, she slid into the room and hid behind the wall.

Another creak, followed by the sound of someone pushing a door open. Then the clicking of a gun and Toast’s knee started shaking.

This person had a gun. Out of all the things, it had to be a _gun_. Something you can’t fight against, you either got shot or you didn’t.

Then the sound of boots moving over the floor echoed down the hallway and Toast wished she’d never entered this house. What if this was a gang member? And she didn’t have a weapon with her, how stupid of her! So stupid!

Then the tip of a gun came into her sight, held up by a pair of pale hands with bruised knuckles. Arms clothed with a leather jacket, black and decorated with all kinds of knickknack. A black leather jacket could mean that it was a War Boy; the thought of running into an Imperator at this place was ridiculous, but the smaller Boys were just as dangerous and there was no way for her to run without getting caught.

The man took another step towards the hallway and Toast finally saw his entire face. Never did she think she’d ever be relieved to see Slit’s scarred mug in this place.

“Slit! You fucking idiot!”

It was the wrong thing to say apparently, because the Boy spun around and pointed the gun directly at her with wild eyes. “ _Don’t shoot me! Do not fucking shoot me!_ ” Toast screamed, turning around the corner and out of Slit’s sight, just in case Slit lost it and tried shooting her nonetheless.

“What the fuck! Toast, _what the fuck?!_ ” Slit yelled. “ _What the fuck is wrong with you_ ,” he barked with a voice so aggressive it let all of her hairs stand up on the back of her neck.

“ _What the fuck is wrong with you_ , are you rusted or what? Breaking into a house like this! Smeg, _fuck_ , do you just want to die or what?” He was still yelling, but he lowered his gun and then engaged the safety on it again.

First Toast peeked around the corner, then stepped out from it and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I could ask you the same damn question, War Boy! This isn’t yours, it isn’t even tagged! I made sure of that before entering.”

“I would’ve come back later with some Boys to claim it.” Slit was still enraged, but managed to lower his voice to his usual tone. “Didn’t think you’d want to return to this place.” It was moldy and dirty, not the kinda place he thought Toast would enjoy spending her time at. Plus, this was the place Toast had kissed him, right outside. She hadn’t enjoyed that judging by the way she’d turned him down later so he couldn’t quite figure out why she had returned.

“I have some free time to waste, not that it would concern you.” She walked up to him and clapped the dirt off her sweater. “Sorry, won’t come back again if it’s War Boy territory. Not really in the mood to run into War Boys.”

“Good, proves you got some brain. You should stay away from us.”

“I will.” Toast puffed up her chest in front of him and then nodded at the gun. “You always pulling out that thing the moment you hear some old wood creak?”

“Nah,” he replied and turned around on his heels. Now that he let his entire weight crash down on the stairs without any caution, the wood creaked as if it was about to break apart. Toast followed on his heels, but her steps caused less noise.

“We War Boys are always armed. Gotta be. What if a Mountain Rider came in or some other rusted filth? Gotta be prepared.”

“So I fall into the category of ‘other filth’,” Toast remarked with snark. It made Slit stop in his tracks before saying “No,” and continuing into the room on his right. Toast followed him and took everything in with sharp eyes – the dusty windows, the old bed, the cobwebs in the upper corners of the room. But it wasn’t as dirty as the kitchen in the apartment downstairs. One look out the window told her that you had quite the view from this place. Maybe even sunlight coming into the bedroom in the early mornings.

The crinkling of packaging prompted her to turn her head around; Slit was eating a sandwich which he had pulled from the inside of his leather jacket. With his cheeks moving and his jaw coming down, he laid down on the bed, one arm behind his head, the other stretched out over the bed. One more time, she saw the bruises on his hands; curiosity made her want to know the origin of them.

“Who did you beat up? Some kid on the streets?” Toast asked while flopping down on the other side of the bed, nodding at his hand.  
Slit didn’t move. “’Tis None of your business,” he murmured. “You didn’t have them when you visited me in the bookstore,” she gave back.

“Yeah, so?”

“What do you mean, ‘yeah so’? When you left you looked quite upset. I was just wondering if you were upset because of me.”

Slit closed his eyes and stopped eating his sandwich, then swallowed and remained silent. Moments went by.

“No. It wasn’t you.”

Toast nodded again and took out her bag of food from her backpack. The burger and fries were cold by now, but they should still taste great. The noise of more paper crinkling made Slit turn his head around to her.

“Hah, you brought snacks, too.”

“Yeah. Have to eat something after work, you know?” She took a bite of her cheeseburger and pushed the fries towards Slit. War Boys were notoriously underweight. When Toast and her sister had been prisoners of Joe, they would catch short snippets of dialogues between the Imperators and from what they had heard, they deducted that most War Boys ate whatever they could find, sometimes even bugs.

Angharad had not been able to eat freely for days after hearing that.

The mattress squeaked as Slit turned around and looked at Toast, then the fries. Slowly, as if he wanted to test Toast’s offer, to see if she’d tell him off again, he reached out for a fry and put it in his mouth. When he let himself fall back onto the mattress, dust went flying into the air.

“So,” Toast began anew, “what happened to your hands? Did someone provoke you?”

“Yeah, had an issue with a wall.”

“So you decided to punch it down? Smart.”

“Hey, I punched it real chrome. Now there’s my blood next to War Boy graffiti, shine as fuck.”

“Well, you know what they say. The smarter one gives in,” Toast retorted, grinning into her burger.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Slit sat up again, because Toast wasn’t making any sense right now. The other day, she clearly hadn’t wanted him too close, now she was doing what? Giving him her French fries and bickering with him? But she kept eating her burger with that silly grin so Slit grabbed three more fries and stuffed them into his mouth.

That smile stayed on her mouth, pulled up her lips into curved lines. Seeing that made something in his chest feel all tingly again and he had to rub his sternum.

“Slit. What you did to your hands…did you do that because Nux told you about him and Capable?”

It was better to be upfront about this and just get it out, at least while she had the chance to do so. Who knew if she and Slit would keep bumping into each other. Her questioned silenced him. Not that he’d been particularly talkative before, but now even his chest didn’t move.

Apparently her assumptions had been right all along. Of course.

“What did he tell you?”

“Just that him and that redhead had a date, that’s it.” He wasn’t in the mood to talk to Toast about kissing, not after what happened. Even if she had shared her French fries with him.

“What happened after he told you?”

“I ran into a wall.” _Slit was really talkative today_ , she mused.

Toast finished the rest of her burger and picked up a fry, putting it into her mouth. Chewing, she kept her eyes on Slit. His eyes were still staring at the wall, but at least he was breathing evenly.

“Slit.”

“Hm?”

Toast licked her lips. “If you’d let me, I’d like to kiss you.” When the War Boy didn’t move or breathe, she added, “A real kiss this time.”

“Why that?” Slit gave back.

“Don’t know. Maybe your scars are just that alluring to me, War Boy.”

Slit turned his head towards her and Toast had a detailed look at his scars. Where the skin had scarred up the most, where he had put staples in and they had fallen out at some point and where it had gotten festered and then healed up again. She reached out with her fingers to touch the staples, but Slit began snarling instead.

“Are you going to kiss me now or what?”

She smiled, another realization forming in her head. He doesn’t like a stranger touching the scars, not that this came as a surprise to Toast. She wouldn’t like a stranger to touch one of her sore spots either. She remembered how Joe had always pulled at her hair, at the braids she had worn back during those earlier days in the vault. One day, she had gotten tired of it and had shaved it all off; no more hair for him to pull at, but it hadn’t stopped him from dragging her up into his room within the vault.

“You’re bailing again?” Slit asked, but his voice lacked the fitting snark. No, not this time. Toast leaned down and pressed her lips onto his. The angle wasn’t the best, a bit awkward perhaps, but she didn’t mind. Her lips pulled at his upper lip and Slit relaxed, leaning up into the kiss for her.

He was a better kisser than she’d thought, considering that he probably didn’t have much experience. His lips were soft, too, his breath warm on her skin. When he opened his lips, Toast pushed against him, tongues brushing against each other until their skin was flushed. When they broke apart, Slit’s cheeks barely had any tint, but Toast’s face was darker, her freckles more intense.

“Already stopping right now?” Slit whined, moving closer again but Toast moved away.

“Yeah, this is it for today, War Boy,” she said while smiling. The mattress squeaked as she sat up and moved off of it, her feet hitting the ground. With a grunt Slit sat up as well, brushing any bread crumbs off his leather jacket and getting onto his feet as well.

“How did you get in? Didn’t hear you opening the door.” he asked.

“The window, down in the kitchen of the apartment on the first floor.”

“You broke into the window?” Slit wondered, a small grin on his mouth.

“I took off the wooden slats, then crawled in. The door was moldy and nasty. Didn’t want to touch it. Besides if someone caught me, I’d be in trouble.”

“You scared of the filth that lives around these streets, Toastie?”

“If you mean the poor people and the homeless who try to survive in this shitty place,” she replied, “Then the answer is no.” She pressed her lips into a thin line and swung her backpack over her shoulder, disappearing around the corner and out of Slit’s sight within four steps.

But he was already on her heels, following her down the hall. “Didn’t mean it like that. I know you’re shine.”

“Do you now,” she drawled as she walked into the kitchen. It looked exactly the same as the last time she was here. Good, no one else was in the house then.

“I know you’re not street filth,” he whispered, making Toast turn around.

“You don’t know anything about me, War Boy.” She took a look around. “Meet outside?” Toast asked. Slit didn’t answer, but just walked out of the kitchen. She almost wanted to see what hole he’d crawl out from; it was probably big enough for her to walk through judging his height.

When she stood outside again, she put the wooden slats back on. She wasn’t sure if she had managed to put the slats into the right place to make it look exactly like before she had broken into the empty house.

But it’d be good enough.

Heavy steps behind her made her jump around and she was suddenly faced with Slit’s pale face, distorted with a grin. Those scars really could make him look like some devilish cartoon villain. He was laughing.

“Not funny, Slit.” Toast stepped past him and stomped towards the exit of the park. One quick glance at her watch told her it was time for her to go. The War Boy followed her all the way to the street until she turned around to him again.

“So, we’re done here for today, right?” Toast asked.

“For today?” Slit replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Yeah. For today.”

“Does that mean we’ll meet again, Toastie?” Slit couldn’t help it but sound hopeful.

“Maybe,” Toast gave back, beginning to walk away from him. “And don’t call me Toastie! My name is Toast!”

“Sure, Toastie.”

She could still hear the grin out of his voice when she had reached home again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me very long to get back into writing again to be very honest; uni hasn't made it easy one bit. One class overwhelmed me so much, I had a nervous breakdown. Not fun, but things are going better again. So perhaps more writing again!
> 
> Song of this chapter is: Gorillaz - She's My Collar (one of my fav songs right now)


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